The Hunt
by flaks314
Summary: "The Animorphs had always expected that the Yeerks would find out that they're not really Andalites eventually. But they never thought it'd happen outside of a mission. Now the Yeerks are hunting Rachel, and she faces some difficult decisions." Written to feel as much like a real Animorphs book as possible. Story starts after book 22 (the David arc).
1. Chapter 1

**Preface/notes**

* * *

After rereading the first 23 Animorphs books, I got inspired to write my own. I did it mostly for myself, but I figured I might as well share it, right?

Since some of the real Animorphs books were ghostwritten, I found it interesting to try to mimic the style of the original books as well. I don't have a style of my own, anyway, as this is the first serious thing I've ever written. There's no modernization, no weird characters (in fact there aren't any new characters at all), the plot isn't crazier than the real books, etcetera. If I succeeded in my goals, it should read just like an original Animorphs book. I think I did, otherwise I wouldn't even bother posting this, but I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Continuity-wise, the story starts after book 22 (the David arc). I don't know how many more books can fit between 22 and this story exactly, because I never read past 23 yet. I can tell you with absolute certainty though, that it does not join back into the canon continuity.

* * *

Update: I've since continued writing, so there are sequels now. I also went back and fixed some spelling mistakes in _The Hunt_ here and there, including two embarrassing name mix-ups…

Note that while I explicitly advertised _The Hunt_ as having no OCs, _The Anomaly_ introduces some. So, should OCs really not be your thing, you might want to stop after this story. I promise they're not flat or self-inserts, though.

The series so far:

1: _The Hunt_ (Rachel)

2: _The Anomaly_ (Cassie)

3: _The Rescue_ (Jake)

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Font test: ≺ **This sentence should be surrounded in thought-speak quotes.≻** If it isn't, try changing your browser's character encoding or font until it does. Unfortunately, fanfiction blocks regular less-than/greater-than symbols.

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

My name is Rachel. That's all, just Rachel.

I have a last name, of course. But I'm not going to tell you. I'm also not going to tell you where I live. See, I have some very powerful enemies. Telling you who I am would make it way too easy for them to find my friends.

Not that it would be all that difficult to find out who I am after I've told you my story, if you're one of my enemies or turn into one later. But I'm at least not going to make it obvious.

I'm sure I sound like I'm either paranoid or involved with the mafia or something. It's not the latter. Maybe a little bit of the former. But I'd say that's healthy for someone in my position.

My friends all say I'm fearless. Marco keeps calling me "Xena: Warrior Princess". I'm still not entirely sure whether he's trying to flatter or mock me, but I guess it's not that far off. Except I'm younger, blond, I try to dress sanely, and I'm not quite fearless. Especially not now that my family is involved.

I just don't like showing my fear.

But right then, I really wasn't scared. I was right in my natural habitat: the mall.

"I'm not sure about this," Cassie said, holding what must be the millionth dress I picked out for her in front of her.

Cassie's my best friend. You wouldn't think so, though. Cassie hates shopping, and she normally really does not care about how she looks. You'll almost always find her in a torn-up pair of jeans about two sizes too small, an old stained shirt, and boots. Not stylish boots, mind you, but the kind that you wear when you know you're going to be walking around in a combination of mud, hay, and animal poo. Which is normally _where_ you'll find Cassie. That's _her_ natural habitat.

But recently she's started to care a bit more. She and my cousin Jake have a thing. Neither of them will admit to anything, but it's painfully obvious.

She tried to be casual about it when she asked me to help her buy some new clothes. Her excuse was that she just needs new clothes because, well, we go through clothes a bit quicker than your average teenager. But when we got to the mall, she kept eyeing the more fancy sections. And all the while she was blushing.

I'd made it sound like it was my idea. "Maybe you should get something nicer this time. How about a dress?" I'd said. She'd have denied everything and gotten something plain otherwise. And what can I say, they're cute together.

"It just doesn't seem very practical," Cassie added.

"This particular dress or a dress in general?" I asked, getting just a little bit desperate.

But Cassie just stared off into the distance. If we were just your normal everyday teens, you'd think she was just worried Jake wouldn't like it. But we're not everyday teens. More likely, she was worrying about having to run for her life while wearing it, or something of the sort. After all, those powerful enemies of mine are hers as well.

"Why don't you try it on? I'm sure it'll look good on you," I added, trying to distract her from those thoughts. We all get them, but we can't let them rule our lives.

After another second of staring she blinked, sighed, and looked at me again.

"Okay, fine. No harm in that."

Then, just as we started heading for the changing rooms, a Hork-Bajir burst out of one of them.

Literally burst. Hork-Bajir are bigger than humans, a lot stronger, and a _lot_ sharper. The thin wooden walls separating the changing rooms never stood a chance. Fortunately, the adjoining changing rooms were empty.

I guess I should back up a little and explain.

Earth is under attack from aliens called Yeerks. It has been for a couple of years. But no one who has even the slightest chance of doing something about it knows. Except for my friends and me, but our chances aren't all that great, either.

If I would just show you a Yeerk, you probably wouldn't be very scared of it. You'd be disgusted by it, maybe. They don't look very impressive, they're just gray slugs. Somewhat larger than normal Earth slugs, but not enough to be worried about it. You could easily squash it under your foot if you wanted to.

And if you knew what it was, you'd want to.

Yeerks are parasites. Sentient parasites. But they don't just live off of other beings like Earth parasites do. They live _as_ them. Their little gimmick is that they can get inside your head and control you. Literally inside. They enter through your ears and then wrap themselves around your brain somehow. And literally control. It takes them a couple minutes to figure out how your brain works, but after that, their control is absolute.

With a Yeerk inside your head, you no longer control your arms or legs. You no longer control your mouth or vocal cords. You no longer control what your senses focus on. You become what we call a Controller.

You can still think for yourself though. The Yeerk can't control that, not directly anyway. But that just makes it all the more horrifying. Because that means you know what's going on. What the Yeerk is doing with your body. It could make you hurt your friends and family, and laugh at you while it's doing it. And you can't even look away.

You become the embodiment of helplessness.

But what it can't control, it can observe. It can read all your thoughts, memories, and emotions like an open book. That's why I can't tell you who I am. Not only is there no good way for me to be sure that you're not a Controller right now, but even if I could be, the moment the Yeerks decide to target you and make you one of them, they'll know everything I told you.

And that goes for everyone. My neighbors could be Controllers. My teachers could be Controllers. The police. The army. Even close family. So we keep this side of our lives secret.

"But Rachel," I'm sure you're thinking, "I'm pretty sure I'd know if my mom or dad was suddenly being controlled by an alien." Think again. With access to their minds, they can behave exactly like your mom and dad.

They don't always do, of course. Just when you start feeling safe, think their hosts are normal, they'll start doing and suggesting things to work toward their goal. To control every single human being, so they don't have to fake anymore. Then they'll make Earth just like their home world. Destroy all that we humans worked to accomplish. Kill every living thing that they don't strictly need to keep us alive. And then move on to the next species unfortunate enough to be big enough to carry a Yeerk.

Yeerks do have one weakness. At least every three days, they need to leave their host to swim around in what's known as a Yeerk pool, to soak up nutrients and Kandrona rays. If you can prevent a Controller from doing so, the Yeerk will starve, and the host will be free again.

I've seen it. Jake was infested once after a mission. If it weren't for Ax, we wouldn't even have realized before it was too late. But we did, and kept him locked up in this abandoned shack out in the forest for three days straight. It wasn't exactly a pretty sight when the Yeerk finally gave in, but it sure was satisfying.

Ax, by the way, is an Andalite. His full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Giving you _his_ full name doesn't really matter – Yeerks will attack any Andalite on sight anyway. That is, if the Andalite gives them the chance.

Andalites look a bit like blue deer, but have a pair of human-like arms in addition to their four hooved legs, a very alien head, and a deadly scorpion's tail. They have an astonishing amount of control over that tail of theirs. It's so fast that humans can hardly see it move, yet you won't ever see one cut anything that its owner wasn't intending to cut. And their tail blade is very sharp. If you get on an Andalite's bad side, you won't even know what hit you. Even if you're looking right at him.

You'll also have a hard time sneaking up on one. Andalites have four eyes. Two of them face forward, not dissimilar from human eyes. The other two are on stalks above their head, like crab's eyes. They constantly shift around, independent of each other, scanning for possible threats.

You won't hear an Andalite either if he doesn't want you to. They can run very quietly, and they don't have to talk to communicate with one another. They don't even have a mouth to do that with; they just have two slits where a human mouth would be. Instead, they communicate telepathically, and absorb nutrients through their hooves.

Yeerks and Andalites hate each other indiscriminately. They're at war. So, in a way, that makes the Andalites the good guys of the galaxy. But they're not infallible. In fact, an Andalite called Seerow was the one who gave the Yeerks spacefaring technology. Before the war, of course. He felt sorry for them. You'll have to ask Cassie to explain how anyone could pity those monsters. Pity for Yeerks is not my strong suit.

The Andalites won't be making that mistake again any time soon though. They instated a law known as Seerow's Kindness, forbidding them from giving any of their technology to any other race. I guess the Andalites feel responsible for the Yeerks because of Seerow, so they're doing all they can to revert his actions.

Unfortunately, they seem to be losing.

They lost, for instance, when they sent one of their great dome ships to help Earth. And it'll be at least another year or so before they can spare another ship.

They were vastly outnumbered and slaughtered at a battle we witnessed on the Leeran home world. Although they did manage to blow up most of the remaining Yeerks with our help, so I guess you could call that one a tie.

But they definitely lost trying to protect the Hork-Bajir from the Yeerks. Now there are very few free Hork-Bajir around. In fact, there used to be none for a very long time, until an Ellimist intervened and used us to free two of them. Ellimists are… hard to explain. They are virtually all-powerful, like gods, but they say they can't or won't intervene with mortal affairs. They do, though. At least one of them does. He wants to protect all forms of life from the Yeerks, but he's doing the absolute bare minimum to help. And he'll deny doing even that.

The Yeerks use Hork-Bajir as soldiers. They were a good choice for the job: Hork-Bajir are almost as dangerous as Andalites. They have several horns and blades protruding from their heavily armored bodies, feet like a tyrannosaurus, and a beak that's close to a falcon's. In their natural form they're actually docile and not very smart, but that hardly matters now, because Yeerks _are_ smart, and are anything _but_ docile.

So there we stood, frozen. Staring in disbelief at the sight of the Hork-Bajir, the shattered changing rooms, the poor woman who happened to be changing two stalls over, and the dark tunnel entrance that the Hork-Bajir exposed. There must have been a secret entrance to the Yeerk pool underneath the city there. We know there's at least one other entrance like that in the mall, but I wouldn't have been casually shopping at this store if I'd known about this one.

Everyone else froze, too. Most people froze because it's not every day you see something as scary and obviously alien as a Hork-Bajir. Other people froze because they know Hork-Bajir aren't supposed to show themselves in broad daylight, and there will be hell to pay for it later. Cassie and I froze mostly because we weren't sure initially if this Hork-Bajir was still a Controller, and if so, if he was out here because the Yeerks found out about us and stopped trying to be discrete.

Even the Hork-Bajir froze. I don't know what he was expecting to happen after escaping from the pool through a mall entrance, but apparently it wasn't this.

The woman in the changing room was the first to start screaming. Then everything just exploded. The Hork-Bajir blazed right past us toward the exit. Most people panicked and ran off into random directions, but some just kept staring, and some hesitantly started running after the Hork-Bajir.

Suddenly it was pretty clear who was a Controller and who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was also clear now that this was not in any way planned by the Yeerks. Which means that the Hork-Bajir must have escaped while his Yeerk was swimming around in the pool.

"We have to help him," I heard Cassie say.

I wasn't so sure about that. I mean, I wanted to help him, too. But he wasn't our problem either. Truth is, I wasn't really sure _what_ we could do to help him right then, anyway. Two teens who have to hide their identity from the Yeerks can hardly stand up to the hundreds of human- and dozens of Hork-Bajir-Controllers that'll soon be swarming around the mall.

Not that we're entirely helpless. See, Ax isn't the only Andalite who survived the destruction of the dome ship. Ax's brother, Elfangor, was still alive when his ship crashed in the abandoned construction site near the mall. Cassie, Jake, Marco, Tobias, and I just so happened to be cutting through there right then.

Elfangor was hurt in the crash, or maybe by the weapons fire that caused it. We tried to help, but there wasn't anything we could do. He was dying. Instead, he helped us. Well, not exactly us specifically; 'us' as in humankind. With what little time he had left, he told us all he could about the Yeerks. And then did something that no Andalite had done since Seerow. He gave us some of their technology.

Specifically, he gave us an ability that almost all Andalites have: the power to morph. To change into any animal that you can manage to acquire through touch.

In case you're wondering what good that does, well, try standing up to me when I turn into a grizzly bear or an African elephant, or try figuring out that I'm spying on you from a mile away as a bald eagle. We even get the same telepathic thought-speak abilities that Andalites have while we're in morph. Also, because morphing is based on DNA, and DNA doesn't get damaged when you get hurt, morphing will heal you. That's pretty important in our line of work.

There are a couple of limitations to morphing though.

First and foremost, you can't stay in a morph for more than two hours at a time. If you do, you get stuck. That's what happened to Tobias. He got trapped in his red-tailed hawk morph on one of our first missions. He's since regained his power to morph, even back to his old body; a reward from the Ellimist for helping him to free those two Hork-Bajir that I'd talked about. But his hawk body is now his natural form. So that means that he can only stay human for two hours, or he won't be able to morph ever again. And he wants to help us fight the Yeerks, which he can't do if he can't morph.

Secondly, you can only morph skin-tight clothing. Shoes and loose clothes don't work. Since we can't exactly go walking around in public wearing spandex superhero suits, we always end up having to hide our clothing somewhere when we have to morph. Usually we can retrieve it later, but not always.

Third, you can't go from one morph directly to another. You have to go through your natural form. Very inconvenient when you have to hide your true identity. Morphing also isn't instant. It takes at least a minute to do. And while you're doing it, you're very, very vulnerable. That's why we couldn't just morph to something big and dangerous right there and then.

All Elfangor had to do to give us our morphing abilities was to have us touch a small blue box known as an Escafil device. We'd figured it got destroyed in the explosions that followed soon after, but we recently recovered it. Well, David did. But I don't really want to talk about David. He brought out the worst in me. Well, in all of us. We ended up having to maroon him on a small, deserted island a mile or so off the coast, far enough away from civilization that no one would hear his thought-speak screams. We'd first gotten him stuck in a rat morph, so there's no way for him to get out of there alive.

The alternative would have been to just end him. Because he was trying very hard to sell us out to the Yeerks or just kill us himself. And he got way too close.

Anyway, just after Elfangor gave us our morphing abilities, the Yeerks showed up. They don't like leaving evidence behind.

It's not a happy memory. I still get nightmares from it, even after all the other stuff that I went through since, and I probably will for a very long time yet.

We had to hide and watch helplessly as Visser Three morphed into some huge alien and ate Elfangor alive.

Visser Three, the only Yeerk in existence to have ever succeeded in taking an Andalite, morph-capable host.

Visser Three, the current leader of the Earth invasion.

Visser Three, who has tried to kill me and my friends more often than I care to remember.

"Don't just stand there, you idiots," I heard a human voice behind us call. "Visser Three will have us all for lunch if we don't get that Hork-Bajir and get this whole place on lockdown before half the city's seen him!"

A Controller. He sounded desperate, and he was right to. Visser Three, who frequently kills his subordinates, Yeerk and host alike, just to make a point. We've seen him do it for much less important screw-ups than letting a Hork-Bajir escape and free-roam around the mall.

We still just stood there. We watched as the Hork-Bajir ran out of the store – not through the door, through a display window – into the Saturday afternoon crowd of the mall plaza. The store's clerks rushed out after him, while its customers scattered out in various directions. The clerks must have all been Controllers, the store being a Yeerk pool entrance and all.

As if all of that didn't cause enough of a ruckus, the window shattering also set off the burglary alarm of the store.

Suddenly, a hand on my shoulder! It jerked me around!

"Are you deaf?"

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. It was the Controller who I'd heard yell. He was yelling at us, apparently. Behind him stood a whole contingent of armed Controllers. A mix of humans and Hork-Bajir. They must have followed the Hork-Bajir out through the Yeerk pool entrance, which we'd turned our backs to in order to watch the escaping Hork-Bajir. Stupid!

They were all carrying Dracon beams. A handheld Dracon beam is about the size of a pistol, but looks more sci-fi than that and shoots lasers that completely evaporate what they hit. Or stun, they can do that too. But they don't use that setting very often.

My mind was racing, trying to decide between fight or flight. But neither would really accomplish anything. They'd kill or infest us either way. Unable to make a decision, I was completely frozen again. And I hated myself for it. Doing something, _anything_ , would have been better than doing nothing!

So that was it. We were done for. They'd realize we weren't Controllers in no time. Yet we'd clearly seen a Hork-Bajir before. I mean, all normal people had run off by now. We were the only two idiots just standing there gawking at it. And free humans aren't supposed to see anything Yeerk-related.

He must have been able to read the shock and defeat from my face. If he couldn't, I'm sure Cassie's face would have sufficed.

They'd force us down into the Yeerk pool and infest us. I've been down there before, except that was on missions. Even when our plans backfired completely, and they almost always did, we still had some degree of control. But this would be different.

I've seen them do it. They would have two Hork-Bajir for each of us, dragging us down to the infestation pier over the pool. Once there, they would kick us in the back of our legs to force us to kneel down. Then they would push our heads down into the pool. Finally, we'd feel the Yeerk slither into our ears.

And once we'd be made Controllers, they'd know who we are. They'd come for Jake, Marco, Tobias, and Ax. Our families too, I'm sure, just to spite us. Maybe they'd make us kill them ourselves. Or maybe they'd just make them hosts to the lowliest of Yeerks, make them clean up their dirty work or something. Or just torture them outright, and make us watch them break. Whatever they'd do, I'm sure it wouldn't be nice.

You have no idea just how much Visser Three hates us. And he's not a forgiving kind of being.

But then the man just shoved a Dracon beam in my hands and ran off after the Hork-Bajir, along with the other human and Hork-Bajir Controllers from the Yeerk pool.

He just gave me a weapon that no free human is ever supposed to get their hands on. Just like that.

"Wh… Wha?" I managed to say when he was gone.

"Uhh," Cassie affirmed, staring at the Dracon beam. Her face was as pale as it could get.

"H-how about we just get out of here?" she stammered, and gingerly hung the dress back on a nearby clothing rack. She was visibly trembling from the fear and adrenaline rush.

So was I, actually.

"Y-yeah, good idea."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

The situation outside the store can only be described as complete chaos. We couldn't see much of what was going on at first, with all the fleeing people in the way. We only got a glimpse of the situation when we came to the stairs down to the first floor.

A number of Hork-Bajir-Controllers were already surrounding the poor escapee. There was no way he was going to get out of this alive without a Yeerk in his head. Even with the Dracon beam, there wasn't anything we could do for him. I considered mercy-killing him with it, but there was no way I'd be able to hit him from this distance. Not without risking hitting some innocent bystander, anyway. I saw Cassie was looking at him helplessly.

"There's nothing we can do for him, Cassie."

"I know."

Her voice was breaking up. Cassie's a lot more sensitive than I am; this sort of thing hurts her deeply. It's not that I didn't care about the Hork-Bajir at all or something, but we'd have time to mourn him later.

Meanwhile, the mall exits were already being blocked by human Controllers. No one was getting in or out. I couldn't help but be just a little impressed at how quickly they got the situation under control. They must have been preparing for events like these.

The blocked exits completed the panic among all the free humans. People were literally running head-on into one another, not knowing where to go.

"We're never going to get out of here without being seen," Cassie added.

"So we find a place to morph something big and go out fighting," I said, sounding more self-determined than I felt. I hadn't exactly thought it through yet, but my anger and hatred toward the Yeerks was starting to win over my other emotions.

Like I said before, I don't like showing my fear. I usually just get angry, instead. It's because of times like these that my friends think I'm Xena.

"I've a better idea," Cassie said. "Come on."

She pulled me along into the crowd, heading straight for the main exit. As we passed the group of Hork-Bajir, we saw the escapee lie on the floor in a puddle of his own blood. He was probably still alive though, because they were going through the effort of cuffing him.

"Does your plan involve kicking Yeerk butt? Because that's what I feel like doing right now."

"So do I, but we can't fight here and win."

I just groaned at that. She was right, of course.

"Just play along. We're Controllers now."

Wait, what? We're Controllers now? Was she just giving up? No, that wasn't right. But then what…

There was no more time to think. Cassie was already forcing her way through the crowd to the Controllers at the main entrance, and she was pulling me along.

"Let us through," Cassie yelled at the first Controller she reached.

Oh, great plan, Cassie. Literally everyone around you had the same idea. The Controller ignored her, of course.

"Listen, you idiot, we saw someone push his way through you guys just a minute ago."

She grabbed the Dracon beam from me and held it up in front of the Controller's face. Not threateningly, she was kind of just showing him we had it.

"Or would you like me to pass your incompetence on to Visser Three?"

Okay, no sarcasm now: that was actually smart. Dangerous, sure, but so was my idea. Cassie can lie pretty convincingly when she has to, as long as it doesn't involve hiding her emotions. And the Controllers were all just as scared as we were. Scared of Visser Three.

He let us through.

The situation outside wasn't much less chaotic, but it was a whole lot safer. Some people were running away, probably having heard the screaming or having seen a glimpse of the Hork-Bajir from outside. Other people were casually heading toward the sealed entrance of the mall, wondering what those people were running from. A police car was just arriving at the scene, and I could hear more sirens further away. Maybe they were Controllers, but more likely they were just responding to the store alarm, or maybe people have just been calling 911. Who knows?

We ran for the first empty alley that seemed far enough away for us to safely catch our breath. Along the way, I opened my mouth a couple times to start explaining my plan for dealing with the situation, but no plan came. At least, no plan that was better than going in with elephant and rhino morphs to cause enough extra chaos to let people escape. And that was a suicide mission. There were so many armed Controllers in the mall now, that it was basically an extension of the Yeerk pool.

We kind of just collapsed in that alley, as the adrenaline rush was starting to wear off. We were silent for a while. Cassie was the first to speak.

"I wonder how the Yeerks are going to cover this up. They can't infest everyone, can they?"

She was trembling at the thought.

"I'm sure they'll think of a way," I growled. "We have to do something."

We were both silent for a while again. I guess Cassie had also run out of good ideas.

"I can't believe that Controller just gave you his Dracon beam," she finally said.

I nodded. "We make for convincing Controllers, apparently."

"Do you think they'll be able to track it?"

I hadn't thought of that. We know that the Yeerks can detect the presence of materials that don't belong on Earth. We once found the Yeerks spending a whole lot of effort trying to secure what turned out to be an ancient Andalite toilet that crashed on Earth decades ago. They couldn't work out from orbit what it was, but they weren't taking any chances.

I groaned. "As much as I hate to do it, maybe we should just hide it here for now. Then we'll ask Ax if it's safe to keep it and come back for it later."

Cassie hid the Dracon beam underneath a nearby dumpster.

"We should also find a place to put our clothes," she said. "We need a meeting, like right now. Maybe someone else has a good idea."

I knew what she meant. Morph into birds, then round up the others. I was already starting to undress down to my morphing suit by the time she'd finished her sentence. We always wear something skintight underneath our clothes nowadays, like my black leotard. Just in case.

"Where do we meet? Do we go straight back to the mall?"

"Guess there's no harm in that if we're birds… Should probably do seagulls though, so we don't draw too much attention to ourselves."

The Yeerks know we're out here and that we can morph. Despite that, most Yeerks aren't that vigilant at looking out for oddly behaving animals, but Visser Three always is. And with something like this going on, he's sure to show up sooner or later.

Fortunately though, the Yeerks think we're Andalites. If they ever work out that we're mostly just a couple of human teenagers who call themselves the Animorphs, this'll all be over quickly. That's why it's important that they can't find our shoes and clothes along with the Dracon beam, should they be able to track it.

I found a dirty discarded shopping bag in a corner of the alley. "Better than nothing," I grumbled to myself, and put my shoes, clothes, and handbag inside. Then I picked up Cassie's shoes and clothes, which she'd just thrown on the ground. She was already morphing. Then I grumpily shoved the bag behind some garbage on the other side of the alley, and started to morph as well.

Cassie has a talent for morphing. She has some control over the order in which her body parts change. Maybe it's because she spends so much time with animals.

Cassie's parents are both vets. Her mom works as a caretaker at The Gardens, a mix of a theme park and a zoo. Cassie and her dad together run the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic from their barn. They take in local injured wildlife and try to nurse the animals back to health. As you might expect, The Gardens and Cassie's clinic are where we'd acquired most of our morphs.

Cassie had started with her wings. She always does that when she morphs a bird. It makes her look almost like an angel. She'd do the rest of the bird's features one by one, and leave the shrinking for last.

Not me.

The first thing that happened to me was a beak shooting out of my lips. The second thing was my eyes moving to the sides of my head. Cassie looked away. As usual, it was not a pretty sight, even when you're used to seeing it. It doesn't hurt though. Which is good, because if it would, it'd hurt like hell.

I saw the flesh on my legs and feet shrivel away to make place for talons with my left eye, while seeing the sky above the alley with my right. I guess my head was cocked sideways. Maybe the left side of my neck was shrinking faster than the right side?

Seeing in two different directions at the same time hurt my brain. Until the seagull's brain joins mine, I won't be able to make much sense of it. The picture was already crispy clear, though. Birds have much better eyesight than humans do.

And then I saw the ground come toward me. I would have jerked if I wouldn't have done this so often already. Shrinking feels like falling, yet never quite hitting the ground. Like those nightmares where you're running toward something but never quite reach it completely. But you get used to it.

I was almost done morphing when the seagull's mind kicked in. You always get the instincts of the animal you morph into as part of the morph. That's usually a good thing, for instance because humans aren't that great at flying. Sometimes you even get some memories from the animal somehow.

But those instincts can be overwhelming. Especially the first time you morph an animal. One time, I jumped into an alligator pit at The Gardens to save a boy who fell in accidentally. I'd acquired the first alligator I could find and morphed into it immediately, just barely hidden from the crowd, hugging the walls of the enclosure. My plan was to stave off the other alligators, of course, until the trainers would arrive. But in the end, the only reason I didn't chomp up that little boy myself right there and then was because fighting for dominance with the other alligators was higher up my list of priorities.

With most new morphs, it only takes a couple minutes for our human mind to take back control. It depends very much on the animal though. We never quite got over the seagull's instincts. But they're not exactly dangerous, so I guess it's more that we're usually just not really trying to contain them.

I shot up into the air as soon as I finished morphing. Out of the alley. I could find much better food elsewhere.

Cassie must have had the same idea. She was already circling overhead by the time I was done.

≺There's a guy eating fries only a block away!≻ she thought-spoke to me.

Fries? No _way_ I was going to let her have them all to herself!

No, snap out of it. There are lives at stake here.

≺I'll go get Jake and Marco, you get Tobias and Ax. Okay?≻

≺No way, you just want the fries to yourself.≻


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

≺I swear; only Rachel can go to the mall and leave with a Dracon beam. From a 100%-off clearance sale, no less!≻

That was Marco. His preferred mode of communication is sarcasm. Especially when we're all nervous. Jake and I ignored him.

≺Okay, that's not one of my best. But you have to admit it was a _little_ funny.≻

The three of us had just arrived at the mall. Jake and Marco both live relatively close by compared to Tobias and Ax, and Cassie would also have to find them first, so she'd take a while longer than I had.

All three of us were in our seagull morphs. We perched down on a ledge of a building opposite to the mall entrance.

All in all, I was only gone for maybe twenty minutes. Apparently that was enough time for the police to completely surround and secure the mall. They put down screens in front of the mall entrance windows to prevent people from looking inside, and taped off the surrounding area. They clearly weren't just responding to 911 calls. They came prepared. This was the work of Controllers high up in the police chain of command.

The police screens weren't high enough to block _our_ view, though. I could see that almost everyone was down on the floor inside. Now, bird's eyes are almost infinitely better than human eyes, so even at this distance, and through the dirty and reflecting windows, I could see that they were still breathing. Unconscious, but alive. Stunned by Dracon beams, I guessed.

≺The Yeerks seem to want everyone alive,≻ I said.

≺Of course they do,≻ Marco said. ≺They can hardly go around killing everyone who was in there that wasn't a Controller, can they? It would be headline news all over the world. They don't want that kind of attention near a Yeerk pool entrance.≻

As much as Marco always gets on my nerves, he's the best of us at figuring out these sorts of things.

≺But if they've stunned everyone with Dracon beams, everyone will realize something weird is going on when they wake up…≻ I wondered out loud.

I realized what was happening, of course. I'm not that stupid. But I was really hoping that Marco would have figured out a good reason for them to not do what I was thinking they were going to do.

≺They'll need to make everyone a Controller before they leave, yeah.≻

So much for that.

≺We can't let that happen,≻ Jake said. ≺There's easily, what, five hundred people in there? But we should wait for the others first. Let's play seagull around here for a while, and see what we can see.≻

There was no discussion, we just obeyed. Jake is sort of the leader of the group. Not that he wants to be, it's just a natural thing. And that's precisely why he's good at it. He knows that his decisions can mean life or death, so he thinks them through as much as he can, and he'll carefully weigh in our thoughts and opinions when we share them. But he'll also make a snap decision when he has to. We won't always agree, we won't always understand at the time, but you need someone like that in a group. Even Ax decided that Jake is his leader now, or 'prince,' as Andalites call it.

I let the seagull in me swoop down to the empty ground between the entrance and the police-do-not-cross tape. It saw some discarded cookie crumbs and figured it was better than nothing. Or well, I was forcing it to hang around the mall entrance, otherwise it'd have flown right to the beach. There's way better food there.

While the seagull in me was picking at cookie crumbs, I listened in on the conversations between the crowd and the police.

"What's going on?" I heard some woman ask a policeman.

"There was an armed robbery at the jewelry store, ma'am. You'll have to come back later."

"Oh my, was anyone hurt?"

"We can neither confirm nor deny that."

So that was their excuse to the outside world. It'd explain the blood stains and the damage well enough, I guess; the jewelry store was just one store over from where Cassie and I'd been shopping. And they could even pass off the Hork-Bajir as people in full-body suits to anyone who got a glimpse of them but got away. People are like that. They'll easily accept lies like that if they make more sense than their own memories. Anyone stubborn enough to not believe the lie wouldn't be believed by anyone else.

≺Oh man. Hork-Bajir are carrying people off to the Yeerk pool two at a time,≻ I heard Marco in my head.

That's bad. It wouldn't take them long to get everyone inside that way, out of our reach.

The Yeerks recently upped their security at the pool. They now have devices at all the entrances that detect and destroy any life forms not registered in their system, and robots flying around inside doing the same thing. The last time we went in, we had to spend several days digging a tunnel down as moles to bypass the entrances. Our tunnel intersected with a cave filled with bats, so we'd acquired some of those to fly inside. But once there, the robots took us down pretty fast. They'd shot a hole through one of my wings, and burned the other clear off. I fell right into the Yeerk pool.

Fortunately, bats are too small to be infested. But I had to morph back to human while still inside the pool, underneath the infestation pier, because my bat body could hardly move anymore.

≺And our good friend Visser Three is already here,≻ Jake said bitterly.

It just keeps getting better and better.

≺We can't wait for the others,≻ I said. ≺We have to get in there _now_ , or everyone will be a Controller by the time they arrive.≻

≺Do you have a plan, oh mighty Xena?≻ Marco asked me.

And suddenly one came to me. The beginning of one, anyway.

≺We need to cut them off from the Yeerk pool. Blow up the tunnel with the Dracon beam.≻

≺Oh man.≻

It was not a happy memory for any of us. We'd escaped from the Yeerk pool that last time by blowing up one of the tunnels. With us still in it. Shooting the roof with a Dracon beam did the trick.

Cassie and Marco were still in battle morph, even. They had to morph to human first to be able to morph back to mole and dig their way out. And we all had to remorph the mole underground once before we found our way back to the bat cave, in order to not be a mole forever. It had been the only way out.

≺To do that, we have to get inside the tunnel first,≻ Jake noted. ≺What about that Gleet BioFilter thing?≻

That's the name of the device that protects the entrance from unwanted DNA.

≺If it works based on DNA, won't they have it disabled now? Otherwise it'd fry anyone they'd carry in there.≻

≺It could also be based on species rather than individual DNA,≻ Marco pointed out. ≺It could still fry us if we go in as some animal.≻

≺Well, I have a Hork-Bajir morph…≻

My morph was one of the two Hork-Bajir who the Ellimist helped us free. Or we helped the Ellimist free. Whatever. We'd morphed them to help stage their suicide, so the Yeerks would stop hunting them.

But we don't like morphing anything sentient. At that point, what really separates us from the Yeerks? The Hork-Bajir had consented to us morphing them to help them then, but I don't exactly have time to find her and ask if she'd be okay with me using her body now. Still, I was pretty sure she _would_ be okay with anything that helps fight the Yeerks. Especially if it's in part to avenge a recaptured Hork-Bajir.

We were silent for a minute, thinking it through.

≺You'll need a distraction too, otherwise you're never getting out of there alive,≻ Jake said. ≺Unless you want to try the mole thing again.≻

It was a rhetorical question. No, _that_ I did _not_ want to do again. _Ever._

≺So here's what we could do. First, we find a place where we can get Rachel into the mall safely and unseen, with the Dracon beam. She then morphs Hork-Bajir and hangs out by the tunnel entrance like she belongs. Meanwhile, Marco and I morph rhino in some alley and barge in through the main entrance. We have a nice little chat with Visser Three, and tell him to leave these people alone and cover it up with some chemical spill that causes mass hallucinations or something. Otherwise we blow up his tunnel and make him do it anyway.≻

≺Yeah, sure,≻ Marco said. ≺Visser Three will totally eat that up. He'll say, "Oh, sweet Andalite bandits, I would have never come up with something as smart as that myself! What would I ever do without you? That's so much better than just making everyone here a Controller, like I was going to do eventually anyway!"≻

≺Marco, do you have a better idea?≻ I asked. He was starting to get on my nerves.

≺Yes. We could just walk away and let them have this one.≻

≺Seriously?≻ I raged. ≺What if your dad were in there?≻

That shut him up. It was a low blow. His mom is a Controller. A very important one at that, Visser One. We weren't even sure if she was still alive then. She might not have survived one of our previous missions.

≺Rachel, that's not helping,≻ Jake said, trying to calm the situation. Calming Marco and me down is normally Cassie's job.

≺I hate the Yeerks as much as you do, Rachel,≻ he growled, clearly holding back. ≺But we can't go in here on a suicide mission. Not unless it deals with the Yeerks permanently.≻

≺Well, I still say we do it,≻ I said defiantly.

≺You _always_ say that.≻

≺Jake?≻

≺Ugh, you know I hate it when you guys make me take decisions like that, right? But these are a lot of new Controllers. Including all the mall staff, at least from this shift. They'd have free reign over this place. Heck, they wouldn't even need any other Yeerk pool entrances anymore. So I have to side with Rachel, unless we can think of a better plan. Let's go look for a way in for Rachel first. Then we can decide whether we go for it or not.≻


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

We found an open window leading to the kitchen of one of the restaurants at the food court. It was opened far enough for me to crawl through using my rat morph, and it was on the first floor, so we could easily drop the Dracon beam inside first.

Since none of us had come up with any better idea, we decided to go for it. I flew back to the alley where Cassie and I had left our things, demorphed, and put my clothes back on. I'd have to just walk back to the alley with the kitchen window, because the Dracon beam would be too heavy and too obvious to carry as a seagull. So I put the Dracon beam in the shopping bag along with Cassie's clothes, and started walking back.

Man, I looked like a homeless person. My clothes were stained from the inside of the shopping bag, and the bag itself wasn't helping. But I didn't stand out too much. No one paid any attention to me as I went from alley to alley.

I hesitated when I got back to the kitchen window. Marco _was_ right; this could easily turn into a suicide mission for all of us. Then again, that goes for pretty much every mission we go on.

No time to think about it. There'll be plenty of time to do that during the nightmares that are sure to follow. So I morphed to rat.

≺Can you guys hear me? Are you ready?≻ I asked my friends before I went inside.

≺We hear you, and we're ready,≻ Marco responded. He didn't exactly sound happy about it, but when we decide to go for a mission, we all have to do our part, even when we don't agree with it. Marco understood that.

I could feel that his thoughts were distant, but they were still clear. We never quite figured out the exact range of thought-speak, but it isn't infinite.

≺Okay, I'm in my rat morph, heading for the window now.≻

I morphed back out as soon as I got inside, not giving my rat instincts time to take over with all the tasty smells of an abandoned kitchen. Then I immediately morphed Hork-Bajir.

Morphing in rapid succession like that is tiring like you won't believe, but sometimes it has to be done. I wasn't going as fast as I could though. I knew free lives were at stake, but I didn't want to tire myself too much before the action even started.

Fortunately, Hork-Bajir have great endurance. I didn't feel as tired anymore when the Hork-Bajir brain joined mine. But that was about the only thing I felt. The smarter the being, the less powerful its instincts seem to be. And fortunately we don't get the conscious part of a morph's brain.

I picked up the Dracon beam, then found my way through the kitchen to the food court. From there, I could see the plaza, where the Hork-Bajir had lined up their unconscious victims, and from where Visser Three was observing. He was in his natural Andalite form. It's hard to tell emotions from an Andalite face, especially at such a distance, but it was a safe bet that he was not happy about the situation.

≺Hurry up,≻ I heard him yell at one of the Hork-Bajir as she was trying to pick up one of the… wider people. ≺The longer this place stays locked down, the more attention we draw to ourselves!≻

Thought-speak can be directed to only those people who you want to hear it. Or you can just shout to anyone in range. Visser Three almost always did the latter. Someone as powerful as him doesn't need to hide.

He could see me, so I had to fit in. I gingerly walked over to the closest unconscious human I could find. There were so few people left! At least half of the people who were in here had already been taken down. We'd wasted way too much time already!

The person I found was a young girl. She was about my youngest sister Sarah's age. Her cheeks were still red and wet from crying before she was Draconed. I accidentally cut her arm shallowly with my elbow blade as I picked her up.

≺I'm so sorry about this,≻ I thought-spoke to her alone. She wouldn't have heard me, of course, unconscious and all. But I felt like I had to say something. If I'd have had to use my human voice to say it, I'd have choked up for sure.

I started heading for the tunnel entrance. Fortunately, Visser Three didn't notice that I was carrying only one small person, and the other Hork-Bajir didn't care enough to draw Visser Three's attention to them. There was no way I was going to pick up any more people.

≺I'm heading toward the tunnel entrance now!≻ I called to my friends. I suddenly realized that if their distraction wouldn't work, I was going to have to take her down to the pool and let the Yeerks infest her.

Well, that was never going to happen. I'd die first, and if that wasn't an option, I'd sooner mercy-kill the girl than let them do that to her.

Would I, though? Would I kill some 9-year old girl? Someone's daughter? Perhaps someone's sister? At least with a Yeerk inside her head, there'd still be hope for her. Suddenly my own thoughts sickened me.

Stop thinking about it, Rachel. You have a job to do, and if you do it right, you might still save this girl. Pay attention to what you're doing.

As I refocused on the task at hand, I realized something was wrong. There were no Hork-Bajir walking _from_ the Yeerk pool back to the plaza. So where were they coming from?

Of course! The other entrance! There's _two_ tunnels leading from the mall to the Yeerk pool, and they were using both to avoid having to deal with oncoming traffic. I'd have to knock out both of them to cut the mall off from the pool!

But it was too late to change the plan. I heard a loud crash coming from the entrance as Jake and Marco's rhinos ploughed right through it. I heard gunfire from outside, too. But normal police handguns don't do much against the thick skin of a rhino.

≺Andalites!≻ Visser Three yelled with utmost disgust, and everyone stopped.

≺All Hork-Bajir report to the mall immediately!≻ he added. The Hork-Bajir around me instantly dropped their victims and ran back. You don't question Visser Three's orders unless you're suicidal.

I guess I was a bit suicidal, going on this mission and all.

≺Visser Three, I have a deal for you,≻ I heard either Jake or Marco say. It was probably Jake, but I couldn't quite tell. ≺How about you just let these people go about their lives and cover this whole thing up with mass hallucinations, and –≻

≺How about I just kill you right here and now!≻ Visser Three fumed. But I didn't hear any Dracon beams. He hadn't given the order to fire yet.

Don't get distracted by the distraction, Rachel! Do what you came here to do! Get into position to at least destroy one of the tunnels!

I was almost at the tunnel entrance that the Hork-Bajir had escaped through. I carefully laid the girl down on the floor.

≺Because there's only two of us here,≻ I heard Jake or Marco respond. ≺The other four are in position at the Yeerk pool entrance, ready to blow it to pieces.≻

'The' entrance. I hadn't told my friends that the entrance which the Hork-Bajir had escaped from wasn't the one we knew about!

I bolted for the nearest tunnel entrance. Nuts to the biofilter. We'd decided that it was probably best for me to not go through the entrance, just in case the filter didn't work the way we thought it did. None of us ever really understand much of Ax's technobabble, and he hadn't been around to tell us whether it'd kill me or not in this particular case. But I had to go through. I wasn't going to get the chance to blow up two tunnels if Jake's attempt at diplomacy didn't work out. But I figured that the two tunnels might join into one before they reach the Yeerk pool, so maybe I could blow up the common part.

I could've yelled at Jake and Marco that there are two entrances. But it wouldn't have done them any good now. It'd distract them from Visser Three, and maybe I could still fix this.

I didn't know whether Visser Three was silent because he was carefully considering his options, not wanting to mess this up and lose us again, or because he was directing his thought-speak now, but I didn't hear him respond.

Doesn't matter. Find the fork in the tunnels. I was already through the biofilter (if there even was one there) when I snapped back out of my thoughts and looked around me again. Still alive. That's good.

≺Rachel, blow up the tunnel!≻ I heard in my head suddenly.

No! I'm not in position yet! Unless… Unless I blow up the tunnel behind me and double back through the other. If I could find it at all. I could get trapped in the Yeerk pool.

But I had to do it. Jake and Marco could be counting on the distraction caused by the explosion. So I took a shot and fired.

It just made a clean hole in the roof of the tunnel. I could see daylight shine through it.

No!

I shot again. That time it worked.

I hauled. I almost got covered by rubble as a large section of the tunnel collapsed. Still, a few dozen yards after the collapse, I figured, "what the hell," and took another shot behind me. More of the roof came hurtling down. Enough to kill the lights in the remaining part of the tunnel, so all I could see now was some faint light at the end of it. If there was a split ahead, I might not even see it.

I ran for the light. It was coming from the huge cavern that houses the Yeerk pool. When I emerged, I was greeted by a large amount of startled alien eyes, wondering what had caused all the noise in the tunnel. I guess Visser Three's and Jake's thought-speak didn't reach all the way here, otherwise they'd have realized.

I quickly looked around to get my bearings. Only a few yards to the left of me was another tunnel opening. Both tunnels shared the same staircase down to the pool area. There was a sparse line of Hork-Bajir walking up the stairs. The other tunnel to the mall, it must be!

"Visser Three orders retreat!" I yelled with all my power. Hork-Bajir can speak. Their own language isn't quite as advanced as English, so most of the time you'll hear Hork-Bajir speak a mixture of English and their own. Now, I didn't know any Hork-Bajir words, so I just used as few English words as I could. "Andalite bandits!" I added. That's what the Yeerks call us.

It was the kind of rash thing that I always end up doing in cases like these. The words left my mouth the millisecond I came up with them. I just wanted them out of that tunnel so I could do what I had to do without getting cornered, but there were a million ways in which that could have backfired. If they'd have called my bluff, I'd have been done for.

But they didn't. They believed me just long enough. Visser Three's arrogance and the fear he spreads among his underlings is going to be his downfall. No one dares to question his orders, even if they're passed on by someone else, and even if they don't make that much sense.

I stood there watching for a moment as four Hork-Bajir ran back out of the tunnel and got in combat formation around the entrance, along with some other Controllers that had heard me. Then I checked to make sure that the tunnel was clear and made a run for it.

"Hey!" I heard a Controller yell at me.

"She could be one of the Andalites, shoot her!" another Controller called.

But they were too late. I'd already shot the tunnel entrance behind me, and it collapsed just as he'd finished his sentence.

Except it didn't. Not enough. I looked back a second later and saw them hop over some rubble. They were after me!

TSEEEEEW, I heard. It wasn't from my Dracon beam. It also wasn't set to stun. It cut a big, gaping hole clean through my torso.

I didn't even feel any pain at first, but I fell. The nerves that used to control my legs no longer existed. Neither did my Hork-Bajir equivalent of a spine.

Only one thing I could still do. Shoot the ceiling behind me. Somehow, I managed.

Together with the damage at the entrance, it was enough to bring down the whole tunnel all the way from the Yeerk pool entrance to where I had fallen. There must have been casualties. Human and Hork-Bajir hosts would have been buried alive. And they couldn't morph to mole to escape.

I realized that I'd been pinned, too. My legs were crushed under a huge boulder. A layer of dirt had fallen over the rest of my body. I was so numb that couldn't really judge the weight of it.

The hole through my torso was big enough for the dirt to fall right through me and cover my alien insides. I was feeling it now. There are no words to express how much it stung. I was trying to scream, but there was no air left inside my lungs. Or maybe it was just that the insides of my lungs were covered in dirt now.

Remove the dirt, my mind raced. My right arm still worked and obeyed. Fortunately, the layer of dirt was only about an inch thick. I blinked some of it out of my eyes and saw with blurred vision that the tunnel ahead of me was still intact. Not buried alive, then.

Dying though. Morph!

It wasn't the first time that I'd morphed while half dead. It's not easy. Your mind just wants to fall asleep. It gets really hard to focus on anything, and you need to focus on what you want to morph in order for it to work.

But Hork-Bajir are tough. I'd never realized just how tough until now.

While morphing, I tried to pull myself further into the tunnel. You can't morph if there is no room for the body that you're morphing into, and my legs were still crushed underneath the rocks. But I was stuck. I could feel that my legs were already trying to change.

Remember how I mentioned that morphing doesn't hurt? Now it did.

My torso had already healed enough to let me scream. It came out as a weird mix of human and Hork-Bajir. I was going to lose my legs! And I wasn't sure if morphing back and forth would heal my human body.

Wait, lose my legs, that's it!

With all my might, I started morphing back to the Hork-Bajir from that weird half-way point. My Hork-Bajir torso came back mostly regenerated, but my legs were obviously still crushed. I was still stuck. But I was Hork-Bajir again, and at least I was no longer dying.

I grabbed the Dracon beam and pointed it back at my lower body. I was going to have to swing the beam around while holding the trigger down to make sure that it would cut my legs off completely. I rehearsed all the actions I'd need to take a couple times down to the finest details, to make sure I wouldn't mess it up. Then I looked away, closed my eyes, and did it.

It didn't hurt nearly as much as I'd expected it to. I guess I was in shock.

I pulled myself away from the boulder and started morphing human again. It was exhausting beyond belief. Combined with the seagull to human to rat to human to Hork-Bajir within five minutes thing that I'd pulled only, what, ten minutes ago? It was too much. I wouldn't be able to morph again anytime soon.

I had to get out. The Controllers would find me for sure if I stayed here.

I started heading down the tunnel. I could only manage a slow crawl at first, but at least I had legs again. I was slowly walking by the time I got to the exit.

BrrrrEEEEET! BrrrrEEEEET!

You have got to be kidding me.

"Unauthorized life-form detected."

That stupid biofilter thing was still active in this tunnel?!

Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. It had already been flowing through me, but that extra little bit was enough to get me focused again.

≺You five! Check out that alarm!≻ Visser Three was back in range.

Simultaneously, I heard Jake call, ≺That alarm! It could be Rachel! Combat morph. Go, go, go!≻

BrrrrEEEEET! BrrrrEEEEET! "Unauthorized life-form detected."

The secret entrance in front of me had shut the moment the alarm went off, designed to trap whoever or whatever triggered the alarm.

"Shut your eyes tightly to protect against retinal damage from the Gleet BioFilter."

I shot my Dracon beam at the secret entrance while already charging at it. The Dracon beam didn't do as much damage as I'd hoped, but it was enough for my body to burst out through it like the Hork-Bajir had. It hurt, but at least I was out of range of the biofilter. Just as I got out, the clothing store in front of me lit up from the blinding light that would have killed me if I hadn't.

"Drop your weapon!"

Three Hork-Bajir and two human Controllers all had their Dracon beams levelled at me.

"Go to hell!" was my carefully considered response.

I moved to point my Dracon beam at my closest target, and even managed to pull the trigger before they shot me. I missed, though. I saw the ground coming for me for a split-second before passing out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

When I came to, everything was dark. I tried opening my eyes, but I'd already opened them.

Trapped! Buried alive? No, no pressure on my body. This was different.

The ground beneath me was very uneven, but kind of soft.

I flailed madly around me. My left arm hit something cold. It gave way like the ground, but there was something sharp there too. Not sharp enough to cut me, though. Could it be a dead body? Was I lying on dead bodies?!

Get a grip, Rachel! And no screaming! Don't let them know you're awake!

I stopped flailing around, and took note of my other senses.

That smell! Oh man, that smell. It was horrible. Familiar somehow, but it was so strong and I was still so dazed that I didn't realize what it was at the time.

Voices outside, in the distance! Footsteps! They were coming! No, wait, they weren't coming closer. There was also a faint buzzing sound, like small insects.

What even happened back there? Did they stun me? Well, I guess that would've made sense. Visser Three would rather catch us alive than kill us. Having more morph-capable Controllers would be very valuable to the Yeerks, not to mention that I'd lead them right to my friends.

I'd heard Jake thought-speak to someone other than me. So either he and Marco made it out of the mall alive, or Marco was hurt but the others had shown up. No, that couldn't be, not enough time had passed. So both Jake and Marco had still been alive. So they would have tried to save me, but obviously they failed. They wouldn't put me in a dark, putrid place like this.

Aah!

Something itchy was crawling around on my arm. I instinctively swatted it.

≺Rachel? Are you awake in there?≻

"Cassie?" I wondered out loud.

≺We had to hide you somewhere close to the mall…≻ That was Jake. He sounded like he was trying to apologize.

≺I don't think she realizes yet where she is,≻ Marco said. ≺I mean, she hasn't come out and tried to kill us yet.≻

≺Well, the coast is clear,≻ Tobias said. ≺So she can come out and morph now if she's awake.≻

Suddenly it dawned on me. "Wait, am I in a dumpster?"

≺ _There_ it is,≻ Marco added. ≺Well, it was nice knowing you guys.≻

I thrust upward to push the lid of the dumpster away. I blinked at the blinding light outside to let my eyes adjust. Then I remembered that I was still standing in the dumpster and jumped out. I almost threw up while swatting away the bugs and bits of rotten food that were all over me.

≺Eww…≻ Marco said.

"You threw me in a dumpster?!"

I was actually more relieved than angry. I mean, I _had_ almost been captured. They threw me in that dumpster to hide me from the Yeerks.

Still, a dumpster?!

≺Yeah, I'm not really digging this new look of yours, Rachel.≻

I took a second to look around me. Ah, there they were. Four seagulls perched on a railing of the building opposite to the dumpster. Only about three yards up. I grabbed a piece of rotten food that was still stuck to my body and threw it at them. Their bird instincts took over and they looked like they were going to bolt, but they perched back down.

≺See, I told you she'd try to kill us,≻ Marco said, sounding proud at his prediction that I wouldn't like waking up in a dumpster.

≺You can be angry at us later, Rachel,≻ Jake said. ≺We all need to get out of here, and you can't be seen. They know what you look like. Morph.≻

They know what I look like.

I froze as I realized what that meant. They were looking for me, now. Hunting me. Not a group of anonymous Andalites, _me_.

≺Rachel?≻

They know what I look like, my mind echoed.

I wasn't thinking straight. I wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to go. In hindsight, I guess I was still a bit dazed from getting stunned.

≺I believe the Yeerks to not be organized enough to find out who you are based on what you look like alone,≻ Ax said. ≺Also, they may well believe that you were an Andalite in morph, trying to bypass the Gleet BioFilter. It would have worked if your human DNA had been registered in their system.≻

≺He's right, Rachel. This is not the end of the world,≻ Cassie said, also trying to calm me down. ≺Not yet,≻ she added grimly.

It took me a minute to gather my thoughts. They were right. It was bad, but there were still ways out of this.

"Seagull?" I finally asked.

≺Yeah,≻ Jake responded.

I started morphing, but I was having a hard time.

≺Rachel, I hate to say this, but the Yeerks are still looking for you,≻ Tobias said about a minute later, noticing that I'd hardly changed yet. He was looking out for us from the sky. ≺You need to hurry.≻

"I'm eggshausthed," I said, with my mouth morphed part way. "Giwe me a seghondh."

≺She's exhausted, Tobias,≻ Cassie repeated for me.

≺I can see that, but the Yeerks aren't going to go easy on us because of that.≻

Come on, Rachel, two more morphs. One to get out of here now, and one to become human again later. You can do it. You have to.

It took me a couple minutes, much longer than it normally takes, but I succeeded, and it cleared my mind a bit. When I joined Tobias in the air, I realized why he was rushing me. The whole area was crawling with police and searching Controllers now. Searching for me.

That meant we wouldn't be able to get my clothes and handbag back for a while. Great, there goes _another_ set of clothes and literally all of my money.

I followed my friends to Cassie's barn. On the way, Jake and Marco explained to me what had happened from their perspective. Visser Three obviously didn't take their deal. He had silently ordered his subordinates to stun them. But rhinos can take quite a beating. The stun setting of the Dracon beams simply wasn't powerful enough, so they managed to retreat.

The police had opened fire the moment they rushed into the mall and never really stopped shooting at them. Rhinos have really thick skin, but even the low-caliber bullets were starting to hurt. So they found an alley to demorph. Then they morphed back to seagull and circled around the mall to look for me. They were calling out to me at first, but I guess I was too far underground to hear them. Ax suggested that the Yeerks might also have installed something that blocks thought-speak from passing through the cave walls.

When they heard the alarm, Jake morphed back to rhino and Marco morphed to his gorilla. They raced back inside, somehow catching Visser Three and the other Controllers off guard. I was lying unconscious on the floor near Visser Three, but even he had the good sense to step aside for a rhino. Then Marco picked me up, and they fled back out of there. They threw me in the dumpster because they didn't know what else to do with me.

I also told them my side of the story. They were all a little more understanding of me emerging from the tunnel in human form and taking so long to morph to seagull after that.

Ax reasoned that it would probably be safest if I would just go home and pretend like nothing had happened. My excuse would be that I'd simply spent the whole afternoon at Cassie's; that I was never even near the mall that day. If Controllers were to find me and come asking questions, I'd just have to play dumb. The story would be that I'd been riding around on one of Cassie's horses in the forest one day, and got knocked unconscious by a branch. When I had woken up, I'd thought I saw a blue horse running away, but later figured that I'd just been hallucinating.

Tobias insisted on spending the night near my house, though. He was worried about me. Not that the others weren't, but he's the only one who can stay inconspicuous all night without having to remorph every two hours.

The plan sounded good. It might have even worked.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

I took the bus home from Cassie's. I'd asked her parents for money for the ticket, claiming that I'd lost my handbag. Which I had, of course, but I'd made up some lame excuse about it. I was wearing a set of clothes and shoes that I'd left at Cassie's place a while back for cases like these.

I knew Tobias would follow me overhead, but I didn't see him. I guess I would have liked to talk to him alone. I kind of… _like_ Tobias. It'd have calmed me down a little. But it wouldn't have been possible along the way. We can't thought-speak in human form, and I didn't want to be seen talking to a bird in public. Especially not now that any Controllers who'd already been informed of what happened at the mall would be on the lookout for me.

Fortunately, no one paid much attention to me.

When I got home, I had to ring the doorbell to get in. My keys were in my handbag. While waiting for someone to open the door, I noticed that our car wasn't in the driveway.

My mom and dad are divorced, and Dad lives out of state. So I live only with my mom and my two younger sisters, Sarah and Jordan. Now, my mom wouldn't have left Sarah and Jordan home alone, so I figured that no one would be coming to answer the doorbell. I was already starting to work out a way to get inside by morphing when Jordan opened the door.

"Hi."

"Oh, hey Sis. Mom isn't home?"

"No."

"She left you home alone?"

"No, I was at Lucy's all day. But then her mom brought me home." Lucy's a friend of hers.

I followed her inside and sat down on the couch with her. She'd been watching TV.

"How long have you been home alone?"

"I can be home alone, you know. I'm not a baby anymore."

"Twelve years old is still a baby," I teased.

"No it's not!"

"Is Sarah here, too?"

"I think she's with Mom. Didn't she say she was going out with Sarah to buy her new clothes?"

They were at the mall? But then…

I froze, and I swear, my heart skipped several beats.

My mother and youngest sister could be Controllers now.

"Are you okay?"

I would have tried to contain my panic, but this was too much. Sarah and Mom, Controllers?

Think, Rachel, think. Did you see them when you grabbed that girl? I even thought that she looked like Sarah. It couldn't have _been_ her, right? No, no, I'd have recognized my own sister of course. It'd just been some random other girl. But if they _weren't_ still out there…

"You're scaring me…"

Did I see them in the Yeerk pool? Were they in the cages? I remember seeing that they were a lot fuller than usual, but I didn't really take a closer look. No, I was too preoccupied with saving my own life to care about anyone else there!

Okay, maybe that wasn't fair. I was doing all that I could. Heck, I almost died. Unlike Marco, who was ready to walk away… No, that's not fair either. He still risked his butt and saved my life in the end.

But what we did wasn't enough! My mom and sister, Controllers? I'd never really dared to think about it. Like, really think. To think that I even used it against Marco earlier… I'd realized at the time that it wasn't exactly a nice thing to say, but only now was I starting to realize just much it must have stung.

Maybe they were still in the cages, not Controllers yet. Maybe we could still do something! Anything!

Jordan grabbed my arm. "Rachel!" she screamed. She looked like she was about to cry. I realized that I'd started pacing around the room like a madman.

Okay, not doing a very good job at pretending that nothing out of the ordinary happened today.

If Mom and Sarah are Controllers now, they'd know why I was freaking out. I'm sure every Controller that passed through the Yeerk pool since our mission would have been told about the blonde fourteen-year-old who was wreaking havoc with a Dracon beam. They'd already be wondering if it was me. So them finding out about my little episode here would be the end of me.

"Okay, Jordan, listen to me…" My voice broke. I was almost crying now, too.

Come on, Rachel. You don't know for sure whether they've been made Controllers. Maybe they left the mall before the Hork-Bajir escaped but were stopped by police later. Or maybe they actually were in the plaza and I just didn't see them.

"What?!" Jordan cried.

I don't cry a lot, so I'm sure she figured that whatever was going on right now was pretty serious.

"You have to trust me. Do _not_ tell Mom or Sarah that I freaked out when you said they were at the mall."

"What's wrong with the mall? Are they okay?"

Already said too much!

"I don't know, okay?!" I blurted out, angry at myself.

That was _not_ what she wanted to hear. She started full-on crying. I hugged her. Another thing that I almost never do.

"Sorry…" I managed to say.

I continued to hold her for about a minute, trying to calm _her_ down as much as I was trying to calm myself down.

It's not the end of the world, I thought to myself. It'll be living hell for them, but we'd free them at some point, right? Or die trying. Besides, Jake and Marco manage to get through the day. They still get distracted enough to enjoy the little things in life, so I'll be able to as well.

But I'll be damned if I let them take Jordan too.

And then I heard the car pull up in the driveway. Great timing, I thought sarcastically. Jordan must've heard them too. She perked up and was ready to run outside, but I stopped her. She looked at me, scared and confused, ready to start crying again.

"Jordan, they cannot know we freaked out. Dry your tears. This is really, _really_ important. And you can't trust them until I say so."

She stared at me for a second in disbelief. "Why?"

"Don't argue with me!" I snapped. "Just do as I say."

She stopped arguing and somewhat angrily wiped her tears away. While it worked, I hated myself for berating her like that. It wasn't intentional. None of this was her fault; she was just as much of a victim as I was. Why do I always have to be so short-tempered?

I heard the key turning in the front door. Jordan and I sat back down on the couch.

"Hi, sorry we're late," Mom said as she came in. "Have you ordered dinner yet?"

Sarah jumped on the couch next to me. I wasn't sure what to think about that. I mean, it was natural. But was it _her_ doing it, or was it a Yeerk?

"No, I haven't," I responded. I was still sounding shaky and angry. Get it together!

"Are you okay, honey?"

She sounded just like my mom. But I couldn't be sure. Not yet.

"We're fine, we just heard something annoying on TV," Jordan responded.

I was worried she was going to give me away when she started talking, but I guess she realized hiding it must be important for me to act the way I did.

Mom shrugged it off. "Pizza?"

"Okay, sure," I said, and walked to the phone to order.

It all seemed so real, so normal. Could it be that they're fine? But after I got off the phone, I caught Sarah eyeing me from the couch. Wondering. She looked away as soon as she saw me return her gaze.

I sat back down on the couch. Mom was sitting in her chair. She was eyeing me as well, but she didn't look away. I suppose it could've just been Mom, wondering what the real reason was for Jordan and me being upset. But if that were the case, you'd think she'd be eyeing Jordan as well. And she didn't seem at all interested in the annoyed and confused face Jordan was making at me.

"Did you hear about the mall?" Sarah asked Jordan.

What?! They weren't even going to hide it? No, wait, they wouldn't have. They'd give their cover story either way.

"No?"

"There was a gas leak, apparently," Mom continued for Sarah. "It made everyone go a bit nuts. That's why we came home so late, there were doctors checking everyone out. But they said we're fine now."

"What do you mean, 'nuts?'" Jordan asked.

"It made people see things that weren't really there, and then a lot of people fainted. It sure was something."

So the Yeerks had gone for Jake's idea, after all. But it felt like a canned response. Mom wouldn't have been so casual about something like that happening to Sarah.

"I didn't faint," Sarah lied.

I mean, it was an obvious lie. It sounded like she was just denying it because she was embarrassed, like any normal kid her age would. Was Sarah still free? It was all so confusing. Were they Controllers or was I just being paranoid?

"Oh, also, there was someone handing out flyers for this group called The Sharing. The doctors said it'd be good for people who were affected by the gas to meet up and talk about it, and when they saw the flyers, they said that The Sharing would be the perfect place for it."

I almost freaked again the moment I heard her say "The Sharing." It's a front organization for the Yeerks. They pretend that it's this nice, cozy group of people who just do fun things together, like barbecuing on the beach or going to the lake in the forest. Then they lure you down to the Yeerk pool and infest you.

But really, her story still checked out either way. If she and Sarah were among the people left in the mall after our mission, the Yeerks would have had to have let them go, but not before feeding them Yeerk propaganda. The more of those people they'd infest, the less they'd have to worry about their secret coming out this way.

But now I didn't know how to respond. If I would tell them that The Sharing isn't as good as it's made out to be and they're already Controllers, it'd make me look very suspicious. On the other hand, if I would act casual about it and they're not Controllers yet, they would _be_ Controllers soon. And Jordan may want to go to The Sharing with them.

I took the risk for Jordan's sake.

"The Sharing? I… I read some bad things about it on the Internet. I'm not sure it's as good as they say it is."

"Oh? What did you read?" Mom asked in a normal, interested tone.

"I don't know… just… things. I don't remember."

Smooth, Rachel. Very smooth.

Mom stared at me intently for a few seconds. I stared back. Okay, that wasn't natural at all.

"Well, Sarah and I are going. Doctor's orders. There's a special gathering for the people who were affected tomorrow evening in the park. You and Jordan really should come, too."

"Yeah," Sarah added, "It'll be fun!"

"It'll be good for our family."

There was something really off about the way Mom said that last sentence. And I was almost certain that I saw Sarah smirk at it from the corner of my eye.

I looked at Jordan. She looked more worried than confused now, like she'd also realized something was off with them.

So, there it was. My mother and sister were Controllers, now. But I can't think about it. Not yet. I can't let them see me respond to figuring it out.

Focus on Jordan, I forced myself. Find a way to keep her safe.

Now, it's one thing to not listen to your brother, like Jake has to with Tom. It's another to not listen to your mother. And expect your sister to take your side.

There was only one thing that I could do that wouldn't give me away right there and then.

"Yeah, okay, sure," I said, and chuckled nervously. "I mean, how bad could it be?"

I wasn't doing a very good job lying. But the Yeerks inside Mom and Sarah didn't care. They got what they wanted.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

None of us talked much over dinner. Mom pretended to listen to the news. Actually, maybe she was. The "gas leak" at the mall made statewide news. Who knows, maybe the Yeerks snuck some secret instructions into the segment?

The conversation about The Sharing kept racing through my mind. I realized just how smart the Yeerks had played their parts. At first I'd thought they were sloppy about pretending to be my mother and sister, but then I figured that they didn't really have to hide it. The Yeerk inside my mother could just force me and Jordan to go to the gathering if it wanted, and we'd be Controllers in no time. But still, that'd be more risky than having us come willingly, so they'd at least made a superficial attempt to hide themselves.

If I was just good old oblivious Rachel, I probably wouldn't even have paid much attention to their strange behavior. Heck, I probably would've blamed it on that stupid gas thing. And even with any normal human reservations I could have about The Sharing, I'd still have come along without questioning it too much in order to keep the peace.

If I was some human who knew more than she should, they probably figured there wouldn't be much of a point in hiding beyond reasonable doubt, anyway. I would have been suspicious from the moment they started talking about The Sharing out of the blue. And I had been.

If I was a morph-capable human pretending to be an Andalite bandit, like I am, they probably figured I would get their little sick joke at the end there and show some kind of response. It was just stupid luck that I hadn't. "It'll be good for our family," the Yeerk in my mother had made her say. A perfectly normal thing to say from Jordan's perspective, but anyone who knew about the Yeerks would see the ambiguity. Making us all hosts would be "good" for our family because then none of us would have to keep secrets from each other anymore. Also, the Yeerk "family" would be one step closer to their goal.

Maybe I was overthinking it and giving the Yeerks too much credit, but I couldn't get myself to think about anything else. Besides, I'm sure they were analyzing me, too. I figured they'd profile me as a girl who knows too much, who'd maybe seen something at the mall. But not as the Animorph that I was, and almost certainly not as an Andalite in morph. After all, an Andalite wouldn't care that much about a few human casualties; it'd just demorph and kill them if it had to.

I excused myself to go do homework as quickly as I could after dinner. When I got to my room, I immediately grabbed my key and locked my door, keeping the key in the lock, turned halfway. They wouldn't be able to open it from outside, even with a copy of the key, and they wouldn't be able to look in through the keyhole. Then I sat down at my desk and tried to clear my mind to figure out what to do next.

I did have homework, by the way. Saturday or not, with lives as busy as ours, things kind of stack up.

I used to do pretty well in school. Even after I became an Animorph, I still got decent grades. I'd still cared about that. It seemed so ridiculous now. I stared at my notes for a couple seconds, then grabbed them and threw them at the wall.

To hell with school!

I opened my window wide and looked outside. Tobias perched down on my window frame only seconds later, understanding that I wanted to talk to him.

≺You okay?≻ he asked.

"No, I'm not okay," I whispered, wanting to be sure that Mom and Sarah couldn't overhear. "Mom and Sarah were at the mall. They're Controllers now."

Tobias looked at me silently. I tried to read his face, but it was angry and fierce as always. Hawks don't really have facial expressions.

≺I'm so sorry,≻ he eventually said.

"There's a gathering at The Sharing tomorrow," I continued. "Mom will be making me and Jordan go, too."

I rested my head on my desk.

≺I don't know what to say…≻

I wanted to hug him, or better, him to hug me. But that's no good with a bird.

I guess he felt it, because he tried. He hopped over onto my shoulder and stroked my hair with his wing. It must have looked ridiculous, and his wing was itchy. But it made me feel just a little better nonetheless.

I'd have to run away. I'd made myself look too suspicious for Ax's plan to work. They were never going to stop until there was a Yeerk inside my head.

At first I figured I could go live with Dad, and try to get Jordan to come with me. But going to Dad now all of a sudden, after refusing his offer to take me with him before… That'd just make me look more suspicious. The Yeerks wouldn't let it rest, and distance doesn't matter for them. They're aliens. Their mothership probably orbits around the world several times a day.

"I'm going to have to disappear, won't I?"

Tobias didn't respond for a while. It was enough to affirm it.

≺Why don't you come out for a bit of flying?≻ he finally suggested.

"Because I'm not leaving Jordan," I said accusingly.

≺I hadn't thought of that,≻ he quickly apologized.

I guess my homework really didn't matter anymore. Going back to school would be impossible. Heck, Vice Principal Chapman is a Controller. Even if I refused to go to the meeting at The Sharing, he could just pull me out of class any time he wanted, with a Yeerk ready in a mobile Yeerk pool in his office.

I would never be able to go back to the mall, either. Or any mall, really. Maybe in some morph of another person, but what good would that do? Going out in public as myself anywhere would be dangerous. I would always have to be in morph when anyone who could be a Controller was around.

I would never even be able to talk to Melissa again. We used to be good friends. But she's Chapman's daughter. Her mother had been infested, too. They had started to ignore her, and she'd figured it was her fault somehow. That her parents didn't love her anymore. And I was too preoccupied with Animorphs business to notice. Naturally, our friendship didn't last long after that. But I guess part of me had always thought that I could work things out at some point.

I felt like I was dying. All the things that I still wanted to do… I wouldn't be able to do anymore. The only thing I'd still be able to do was fight the Yeerks.

The same thing had happened to Tobias, in a way. How did he deal with it?

I wasn't sure whether I should ask him. He doesn't really like to talk about it, and he'd feel pressured to respond now.

I had to know, though.

"Do you miss your life?"

≺I…≻ he started saying. It took him a couple seconds to figure out how to respond. ≺I guess I do, in a weird way. I miss the little things. Playing video games, reading a book, watching TV, eating normal food. Those sorts of things. I guess I even miss school. But I don't really miss my family. I still see the few people I care about almost every day.≻

Tobias didn't live with his parents. He doesn't know who his father is, and his mother just disappeared a couple years ago. Instead, he was being juggled back and forth between his aunt and uncle. We'd left his uncle a note saying that he went back to live with his aunt again, and neither of them ever even bothered to look for him. That's how little they cared for him.

"But… what do you do… you know, when you're not on missions or hunting for food?"

≺Well… Mostly I try to figure out what I can about the Yeerks. If we can get rid of them…≻

"…you can become human again," I finished his sentence. He was silent for a while.

Then I heard someone come up the stairs. I jerked up.

≺It's Jordan, your mom sent her to bed.≻

"Oh. Wait, you can hear them talk from here?"

≺Sure, you can't?≻

"No." Tobias sometimes forgets just how bad human eyes and ears are compared to his.

≺Well, she wasn't very happy about it, because –≻

Tobias stopped mid-sentence, then shot up and hopped toward the window. Then I heard Jordan knock on my door. I guess he must've heard her walk up to my door before she even knocked.

"Rachel?" Jordan said angrily.

≺I'll be right above you on the roof, just out of sight. Okay?≻

I nodded and watched as Tobias flew out. Then I opened my door for Jordan.

"Mom made me go to bed already, but let Sarah stay!" she vented. Jordan's older than Sarah, so it wasn't exactly fair.

I gestured for her to come in, then locked the door behind her again. She stared at me, confused.

≺Rachel, if you can, keep quiet. Your mom got on the phone with other Controllers.≻

I closed my eyes to let it sink in. Now there was absolutely no doubt anymore.

"It's that gas, isn't it?" Jordan asked.

I shushed her.

"And you were at the mall too? You're also acting a bit nuts."

"Jordan, please be quiet," I quickly whispered, "I'm trying to overhear Mom on the phone."

She looked puzzled, because she couldn't hear anything. But she was silent.

My room is pretty much soundproof now, ever since I had a little… accident in my house a while back. I _may_ have been morphing to elephant in my room… I couldn't help it; it was this weird morphing allergy thing. Anyway, the house didn't approve. I couldn't exactly tell anyone why it had happened, so people assumed it was faulty construction. While rebuilding, they made very sure that it wouldn't happen again. Now the floor and walls around my room are so solid that you don't hear a thing through them anymore. At least not as a human.

≺Your mom reported in to someone that she and Sarah can't be sure if you're one of the Andalite bandits, but they don't think you are.≻

I heaved a sigh of relief. Jordan stared at me, still not believing that I could hear anything. Tobias was silent for a while again.

≺Oh no.≻

Silence again. I wanted to scream, "what do you mean, 'oh no?!'" but I didn't want to break his concentration, or have to explain myself to Jordan. Finally, his explanation came.

≺They figured that you were the one who escaped from the mall with the Dracon beam, then ran into an Andalite who acquired you and told you some of what was really going on… They think the girl who was with you might have been Jordan…?≻

Seriously? Cassie's black, my family's white. Like Jordan, Cassie is shorter than I am, but that's about where the comparison ends. Well, I guess the Controller who let us out through the main entrance wouldn't have dared to report his screw-up to Visser Three, and the Controller who gave me the Dracon beam had obviously not been paying a lot of attention in general. I guess they made _him_ talk. I'm sure the Yeerks would have been able to trace the Dracon beam back to him after they stunned me and took it back.

≺They…≻

Silence for a moment again.

≺They say they'll take both of you to the meeting tomorrow. She hung up.≻

Well, that could have gone worse. At least they didn't piece together that I can morph. But relief quickly turned to worry, again. They were suspecting Jordan too, now. Simply convincing Jordan not to go to The Sharing wouldn't be good enough for sure. I'd have to get her to run away with me. Tonight.

"There's no _way_ you can hear anything," Jordan said, shaking her head.

What in the world could I say to her to make her believe me? I guess I could show her that I can morph, or get Tobias to thought-speak to her, but who knows how she'd respond to that? She'd almost certainly trust Mom over me, then.

"And why'd you lock your door like that?"

"Because…" I started saying. Man, this was hard. I wanted so badly to shield her from the truth, but how could I do that _and_ get her to come with me?

"Because what?"

"Sarah and Mom… They're… I think they're not themselves anymore."

"Because of the gas?"

"No, that –" I wanted to say that the gas was a lie, but I stopped. "Something like that."

Jordan frowned at me.

"We… We need to leave home for a while, Jordan."

"Huh? What do you mean, 'leave home?'"

I looked at the floor, trying to work out how to phrase it. But she figured it out on her own. Her eyes widened.

"Run away? Why?"

"Because… they might hurt us when they're like this."

"What? No they wouldn't!"

This wasn't going to work. I had to give her something.

"Jordan, the gas was a lie. They're covering up what really happened. I was there."

≺Be careful, Rachel. If they get to her…≻

"But you said –"

"I'm not _going_ to let them get to her!" I snapped at Tobias. I'd gotten so used to being able to respond to thought-speak privately, especially when talking to Tobias… It took me a second to realize that I'd said it out loud.

Jordan stared at me, mouth open now, eyes still wide.

≺Well, there goes that.≻

I sighed angrily at myself. "Tobias, just come out here and show yourself, will you?"

"Tobias?"

"He's a bird," I prepared her. "Don't freak out, okay?"

I looked at the window. So did Jordan, though not because she believed me. But Tobias appeared a few seconds later.

≺This is a terrible idea, Rachel,≻ he said, still only to me.

"Jordan, meet Tobias. Tobias, say hello."

He looked at me fiercely.

≺Hi,≻ he reluctantly said to both of us.

"It can talk?"

"Yeah. He has really good ears, too. He was the one listening in on Mom."

"Oh," Jordan said, like that somehow made sense to her. "He looks scary."

"It's okay. You can pet him, even. He won't bite."

≺Rachel, I'm not a pet,≻ Tobias complained to me alone.

Jordan cautiously walked over to him and reached for him.

 _Just go with it,_ I mouthed to him.

She stroked him, while Tobias' gaze was still locked on me fiercely.

"Where in the world did you find a talking bird?" Jordan asked.

"It's… complicated."

"Can it do tricks?"

≺Rachel, I'm warning you…≻

"He says he doesn't want to. And he's a 'he.' But listen, Jordan. He saw what really happened to Mom and Sarah at the mall. They're…"

I was totally winging it, and I ran out of ideas there.

≺They're… not really your mother and sister. They're clones.≻

Yes! That'll work.

≺Your real mother and sister are okay, but…≻

"…their clones want to make clones of us, too."

Jordan thought about this for a second.

"Then where are the real Mom and Sarah?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that. I looked at Tobias for help.

≺I don't know where they are now. But I'll keep an eye out for them, okay?≻

"Well, we have to help them," Jordan said determinedly.

"We have to help ourselves first. If we stay here, they'll force us to come with them to The Sharing tomorrow. There they'll clone and imprison us as well, and then we won't be able to help them. So first, we need to get out of here without their clones knowing that we left."

"How?"

Good question. My room's on the second floor. _I_ could've gotten out fine by morphing a bird of course, but that wouldn't help Jordan. We could've jumped out and lived, but it would've hurt pretty badly. I could've gone out first and morphed something big enough to catch her, like my grizzly bear, but I didn't want to scare her by morphing. I guess Tobias could've morphed somewhere out of sight, but he didn't have any good morphs for the job for as far as I knew. It's pretty difficult for Tobias to acquire new morphs, as he has to be a hawk when he does it.

"I guess… we'll just have to wait for them to go to sleep, then we sneak out."

"What if they hear us?"

"Then we'll just have to make a run for it. Just go to your room and pretend to go to sleep. I'll come get you when the coast is clear. Okay?"

"And then we go look for them, right?"

I hated having to lie to her about that. But at the same time, I couldn't tell her that there's nothing we can really do for them. At least not until things quiet down. She wouldn't have accepted that.

"We'll… help them as quickly as we can."

She looked at me in the eyes. It made me look away.

"You're still hiding something, aren't you?"

I looked at Tobias for help again, but he didn't know what to say to that, either. Then I looked at the ground, realized how guilty I looked, and finally forced myself to look at Jordan again.

"I promise I'll explain everything, but later. First, we get out of here."

She stared at me intently again. This time I didn't look away.

"You better keep your promise, Rachel. And you better come get me. I don't like this."

"I will."

She finally went back to her room. I locked the door behind her again and let myself fall onto my bed.

"Jeez…"

≺What are you going to do with her?≻

"Well, she needs to disappear as much as I do. The Yeerks think she's involved too, now."

Tobias thought about this for a moment.

≺I should go get the others for help…≻

He was asking for my permission. Jake and Marco wouldn't approve of this whole thing one bit. I'm pretty sure Ax would tell Jake. I could probably make Cassie try to keep the secret, but I don't know how long she'd be _able_ to keep it.

On the other hand, we needed a place to crash for the night. Cassie's barn would do nicely. We were going to keep David hidden there, too. But it wasn't good enough for him. That spoiled brat. No, he ditched us and broke into a hotel room, instead.

I sighed. "I guess they're going to find out eventually. But only tell Cassie for now. We'll need a place to spend the night."

≺All right…≻ he said reluctantly. ≺Be safe, okay?≻

I stroked him. He doesn't have a problem with _me_ doing that.

"I'll be alright."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

While Tobias was gone, I took the time to repurpose my backpack from schoolbooks to clothing. I wasn't going to get any allowance any time soon, and I had run out of my emergency stockpile at Cassie's barn, so I'd have to make do with what I could bring with me now.

I was done long before Tobias returned. Now all I could do was wait.

My mind kept drifting off to Mom and Sarah. But there was no way for me to help them. Not yet. If something were to happen to them now, it'd only further confirm that Jordan and I are a danger to the Yeerks.

I wondered what Yeerks do when they're alone and don't have anything to do. I guess… I guess they would try to break their hosts into submission.

Don't think about it. They'll be alright. We'll help them later. They'll at least be alive.

It'd taken Tobias only an hour to get Cassie, but with all those things racing through my mind, it had seemed like an eternity.

Cassie was in her osprey morph. They flew right in through my window without even announcing themselves, then they perched down on the edge of my desk and just looked at me. I guess they weren't sure what to say.

≺I… I prepped a place for you and Jordan in my hayloft…≻ Cassie finally said.

"I'm sure it'll beat the dumpster," I whispered back. "Can you guys see what my family's doing right now?"

≺No, the curtains are drawn,≻ Tobias answered. ≺But the light downstairs was still on.≻

"Yeah, I haven't heard them come up yet. I guess this could take a while."

We were mostly silent after that, all caught up in our own thoughts. I guess they were feeling sorry for me, but that's not really what I needed from them right now. I just wanted out of there, and kick Yeerk butt for what they did to my family. I guess I was starting to understand why Marco hid the truth about his mother for so long.

At some point I turned on my TV to break some of the tension, but none of us were really interested.

Cassie had gone out with Tobias to find a safe place to remorph around 10:30. Normally she would have done it in my room, but I'd insisted on them finding another place to do it now. Just in case.

It was around 11 pm when Mom and Sarah finally came upstairs. Way past bedtime for Sarah, of course. The Yeerks controlling them clearly weren't too worried hiding their true identities anymore. All lights went out around 11:30. Now we just had to wait for them to fall asleep.

I guess one of us could have gone in as a fly or a cockroach or something to see when they'd fall asleep, but anything small enough to not stand out too much in my house would have taken way too long to fly back from any safe morphing spot, so we just waited. It was around midnight when I couldn't take it any longer.

"Let's just do it," I whispered.

Cassie and Tobias would wait on the roof. I'd figured that it'd seem way too suspicious if I'd just leave my window open like that. I'd put my pillow and some old stuffed animals under my sheets to make it look like I was in bed, the way I'd gotten used to doing. The longer it'd take them to find out I was gone, the more time we'd have to… Well, I guess I hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Hide, I guess.

We'd escape on our bicycles. The bus would be way too risky and would require money, and it was too far to walk, so it was the only option, really. We always leave our bikes in the backyard, so we would leave through the back.

I swung my backpack around my back, and then quietly tiptoed over to Jordan's room. She was still clothed, but had fallen asleep on her bed. I closed her bedroom door behind me, not wanting to take any chances.

"Jordan, wake up," I whispered.

As I went to shake her awake, I noticed she was sweating. Nightmares. Well, she was going to have to get used to that.

When she awoke, she shot up and looked at me suspiciously.

"R-Rachel?" she whispered.

"Yeah, it's me. I think you were having a nightmare."

"But… Sarah and Mom…?"

"That was real."

Jordan sighed and buried her face in her hands for a couple seconds. Then she got up from her bed and grabbed her backpack.

"Did you pack up clothes in there?"

"Duh."

"Okay. Good."

"I don't like this, though. I hope we're not the ones who're nuts, here. I mean, I _did_ see a talking bird."

I shushed her. I thought I'd heard something, but it might have just been my mind playing tricks on me.

"Just be quiet and follow me, now," I hissed at her as softly as I could.

We managed to get downstairs without seemingly drawing any attention to ourselves. I thought we were heading down the home stretch. Man, was I wrong.

"The backdoor's locked," Jordan whispered.

I felt my pockets. Of course! My key was still at the mall.

"I lost my key, where's yours?"

Jordan tiptoed over to the cupboard by the kitchen door. She felt around the top in the dark.

"I'd left it right here, I swear… I'll go look for it…"

Had Mom and Sarah taken them? Of course they had. They must have figured we'd try to escape, since we clearly knew something. They just didn't know how much.

I felt rage bubble up inside me. This wasn't fair! Let us out of here!

Before I'd really realized what I was doing, I'd grabbed a dining chair, held it around my torso with the chair legs sticking forward, and charged for the full-height windows we have facing our backyard.

"Rachel? What're you –"

Fortunately we had single-pane windows. But man, that was loud. It also cut me up a fair bit, but I didn't care. I've had worse.

≺What the –≻ Tobias responded.

≺What are you doing?!≻ Cassie concurred.

≺They heard that! Run!≻

Jordan ran out after me.

"The real Mom's gonna ground you for months for that!"

"Get your bike! Quickly!"

Fortunately, we never lock them when they're out in the backyard. So we could just hop on and go.

The living room light flicked on behind me.

"Kerflar two-five-eight, call for backup! They're getting away!" I heard Mom yell at the top of her lungs. Yeerks don't really name themselves, they just have designations. "I'll follow those stupid humans!"

I flipped the bird at her, already on my bike. Mom didn't have one, and she wouldn't keep up for long on foot.

"Jordan! Go, go, go!"

≺Cassie, get backup. I'll stay with them! Meet you back at your place!≻

≺On it! Good luck, guys!≻

Tobias swooped down overhead of me while I was powering down the alley that passes behind our backyard.

≺Do you have a plan? They'll be following you! What were you thinking?!≻

"They hid the keys, there was no other way out," I retorted.

"We could have just climbed out through the kitchen window, Rachel!"

Oh.

≺Well it's too late now.≻

We emerged from the alley and took a sharp right down the road.

"Where are we going?" Jordan asked, already getting exhausted. So was I. _Cycling_ for my life was a new one.

"Cassie's, she has a place where we can –"

≺Oh no, LOOK OUT!≻

There was nothing ahead of me, so I looked around. But it was already way too late to respond to what I saw. I was flying before I knew it. The world spun, then came a searing pain from my back, then my head. I let go of my bike. More spinning, then landing, scraping, and rolling roughly along the asphalt.

Jordan! Where's Jordan?!

It took a moment for my senses to catch up with what had happened, but then I heard her screaming in pain. I turned to the location of the sound and crawled toward her. I was having trouble; I got pretty banged up from the fall.

"Fools!" Mom raged as she got out of the car – our car – which she'd rammed right into us. "Do you think you can run away? Do you think this host does not know where you will go? There is nowhere we won't find you!"

As the Yeerk was throwing its cliche temper tantrum, I checked up on Jordan. It was bad. She'd clearly broken her right arm and leg, and possibly her jaw and nose, too. Not to mention all the bruises and scratches. Some would definitely need stitches, she was bleeding pretty badly.

TSEEEEEEER, I heard Tobias as he attacked my mom.

"Andalite!" I heard Mom scream in disgust.

≺Forget about your bikes, they're done for! Get in the car and drive!≻

Jordan screamed again as I pulled her to her feet. Well, foot. Her right leg was useless for carrying any weight, and her left leg looked like it was hurting as well. I'd been a lot more fortunate; aside from a massive headache, pain down my back, a sprained foot, and general aches and sores I was fine. I had to drag Jordan to the car and push her into the passenger seat.

Fortunately, Tobias was keeping Mom busy. I'm sure she would win from him eventually, especially because Tobias was probably going easy on her, but it was a good enough distraction nonetheless.

I got in the driver's seat and looked over the dashboard. The world was still spinning.

"How do you drive this thing?!"

≺Automatic? Please be an automatic.≻

"I think so!"

≺Pedal all the way to the left should be the parking brake, press to release, then push the shifter forward and hit the accelerator!≻

I struggled, but managed. The car took off with screeching tires.

Bang!

I hit the curb! A trash can perished. Steer left! LEFT!

Man, that steering wheel was heavy!

≺Rachel, don't go to Cassie's! They'll be looking for you there. Go to the forest, then ditch the car. We'll find you! Cassie, can you still hear me? If you can, go home and pretend to be asleep _right now_!≻

I didn't hear Cassie respond. I guess Tobias went after her.

I looked to my right. Jordan was sitting almost in the fetal position, crying as much as she was bleeding. We'd lost our backpacks, too.

I directed a swath of profanity at myself. This was my fault! All you had to do was go out the kitchen window, Rachel!

I almost veered right off the road again.

Focus, Rachel, focus! Drive! And find the stupid headlight switch!

I started pushing buttons and pulling levers. I feel like I'd tried every last one of them before I finally found something that lit up the headlights.

Intersection! Red light! Brake! I searched with my left foot, but was too late. I was just a hair away from hitting a passing and loudly honking car, already swerving out onto his oncoming lane to avoid me.

All this movement was making me nauseous. Part of me wanted to pull over and throw my pizza right back out.

Focus! Drive!

"I neeth a hosfifal," Jordan cried. She either lost some teeth or her jaw _was_ broken. "Thake me thoo the hosfifal!"

"I can't! They'll be looking for us there!"

My mind raced.

FOCUS!

It's a good thing it was midnight. There wasn't a lot of traffic for me to run into. I was starting to hear sirens in the background, though.

≺Rachel, if you can hear me, there's two police cars heading in your general direction!≻

Man, that was all I needed. Probably Controllers, too.

≺I'm trying to find you, blink your headlights!≻

I did.

≺Okay, I see you. Go… right, next intersection!≻

I wanted to respond to him so badly. Tell him how hurt Jordan was. I'd need Cassie to patch her up or something, _anything_!

"Just hang on, Jordan. Don't you dare die on me now!"

Jordan just moaned, tired of trying to speak.

≺Rachel, you missed your turn. I know you're hurt, but pay attention!≻

He was right. The sirens were getting closer.

≺Yeah, that'll do too,≻ he thought out loud. ≺Next right!≻

I rammed my foot on the brake pedal and turned. Wait, a parking lot?!

≺Park and turn off your lights and engine!≻

"PARK?! Are you serious?! I can barely follow the road!"

He couldn't hear me, of course. I found two empty parking spots next to each other and turned into the middle. It'd have to do. Then I turned off the lights and then turned the car key to kill the engine.

≺Wait there until the cops pass you. I think they might be headed for Cassie's barn. Cassie, hurry!≻

I felt my dinner coming up. I turned to my left and threw up all over the left side of the interior. I would've been too late to open the door even if I'd wanted to, with the cops so close and all.

Combined with the dumpster and lying in a big puddle of my own (well, Hork-Bajir) blood and entrails down in the Yeerk pool tunnel, this had got to be the most disgusting day of my life. But never mind that.

"Jordan, how're you holding up?"

She just shook her head and whimpered. I looked at her in the flashing lights of the police cars as they passed by. She really wasn't looking good. I wished I knew what I could do to help her, but I didn't. So I just put my hand on her good shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Sis…"

I realized I was crying.

But then I had an idea. The Escafil device! I still wasn't one-hundred percent sure morphing would heal your own body, but it'd better. We had to make her morph!

But it was well-hidden. And I was in no position to go looking for it. I would've had to leave Jordan behind like this. That was out of the question.

But I could at least test my theory. It'd also let me talk to Tobias.

"I have an idea, but it's going to look very scary. Just… don't look at me for a while. I'm going to change into a bird."

"Whuh?" she asked, and looked at me, of course.

I'd already started morphing. Feathers were replacing my skin. She shrieked.

"I'll be okay, don't worry! I do this all the time."

Then she just stared at me, mesmerized, worried, and disgusted, for a moment forgetting about the pain a little.

≺Okay, the coast is clear again, get out of there,≻ I heard Tobias say while I was mid-morph. A couple seconds later, ≺Jeez, Rachel, turn the key all the way to start the engine, then pull the shifter back to put the car in reverse.≻ And another couple of seconds later, more panicked, ≺Rachel? Are you okay? You'd better be okay! I'm coming!≻

I responded as soon as I could thought-speak, not yet completely morphed.

≺Tobias, get the Escafil device! My sister's hurt bad!≻

≺What? Oh man. Okay, okay,≻ he panicked. ≺I'm on it! Just get to the forest, I can see more police cars pulling out from the station!≻

I started morphing back.

"How ahre hgyou doinh thath?!"

≺It's a long story, I'll tell you later. But you're –≻ I managed to say before losing my ability to thought-speak again. My mouth wasn't properly formed yet, though, so I couldn't quite talk yet either.

"Ih'm whath?"

It took a minute before I could respond again.

"You'he going to have to mohph, too," I said, not quite capable of making an 'R' sound yet, but still somehow sounding better than my sister.

The morphing was working. My mind was a lot clearer now, and my human skin came back unscathed. Fortunately, I hadn't shrunk that far when I'd half-morphed to eagle, so my clothes were still in place well enough to not tear when I grew back. Not that they hadn't torn when I scraped across the tarmac, and they were completely disgusting with blood, road grime, and a bit of vomit, but they were all I had now.

"The morphing will heal you, see? So you just need to hold on a little longer. Can you do that for me?"

She nodded unsurely.

I restarted the car, managed to pull out of the parking spot without hitting anything, and headed for the forest.


	9. Chapter 9 (Jake)

**Chapter 9 (Jake)**

* * *

 _(Chapters with names in parentheses are "bonus" chapters, written from different perspectives. You can safely skip to Chapter 11 and not miss anything you need for Rachel's story if you want the usual single-storyteller Animorphs experience.)_

My name is Jake. I've had a rough day, it's 12:30 am, and I just got woken up by the stupid phone ringing, so ask someone else for an explanation of what happened today and the months before.

I got up after a minute. It wouldn't shut up, and I didn't hear anyone else bothering to go get it, so I might as well get it over with.

I was still so dazed from getting woken up right in the middle of one of my usual nightmares that I almost fell down the stairs.

Finally, the phone. Still ringing. I picked up.

"What?" I asked groggily.

"Hello, I'm looking for Tom. I'm from The Sharing."

He didn't even have to mention The Sharing. I recognized the voice. I froze, shivers going down my spine.

It was the voice of Visser Three's human morph.

"I'll, uh… I'll just go… wake him up for you, then," I stammered. "Hold on…"

I wasn't about to challenge Visser Three, whether he suspected me of anything or not.

I put the horn on the table next to the phone, and raced back upstairs. I was fully awake and ready for action, now. Tom's a Controller, so he gets calls from "The Sharing" more often, and sometimes I end up taking them for him. But Visser Three himself… That was new. And this late? Something was going down.

I banged on Tom's bedroom door.

"Tom!"

"Ugh… What the heck, midget, it's the middle of the night," he responded.

"There's someone from The Sharing on the phone for you. It's –" I almost straight up told him it was Visser Three. But I wasn't supposed to know that. "It sounds important."

He didn't have to be told twice. The Yeerk inside him realized this was pretty unusual, too. He stormed out of his room.

"Go back to sleep, Jake," he commanded.

I went back to my room as instructed, but not without pushing my ear against the door to try to listen in on the conversation. I could only hear one side of the conversation, of course.

"Hello, this is Tom."

"Uh-uhm, y-yes Visser."

"Yes, Visser."

A long pause, now. I almost thought he hung up the phone already.

"Y-yes, Visser. I have nothing to report as of yet."

Then I heard him come back upstairs. I quickly but silently went back to bed and pretended to have been there all that time. He knocked on my door.

"You still awake, bro?"

"Ugh… Yeah?" I responded, as if I was trying to fall back to sleep.

"When's the last time you saw Rachel?"

"Uh… Yesterday in school," I lied. "Why?"

"She ran away with Jordan, apparently. Any idea why?"

What? Rachel ran away? That wasn't the plan. And the Yeerks knew about it, too; that _definitely_ wasn't the plan. And Jordan was with her?

"No…" I responded.

I heard him walk back to his room.

"Wait, what's The Sharing got to do with this?"

"Oh, Naomi just so happened to have joined us today. The Sharing looks out for its members, new or not," he explained. Naomi is Rachel's mom's name. "You really should join, you know."

"Yeah, right, whatever."

"Just let me know if you hear anything, I'm going back to bed."

Things started to click after thinking about it for a little while. Aunt Naomi must have been at the mall today, or very coincidentally had been taken host for some other reason. She'd have recognized Rachel from the description that the Controllers at the mall must have circulated around, and Rachel ran.

I wanted to help her, badly. But I didn't know what I could do. Tom would be extra careful now. I'd hoped he would sneak out after some time to follow whatever orders Visser Three gave him, but I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. So all I could do was wait out the night.


	10. Chapter 10 (Cassie)

**Chapter 10 (Cassie)**

* * *

Hi, my name is Cassie. I think Rachel already told you her part of the story, so I'll cut right to the chase. That is, me hauling my osprey tail back home.

Tobias had told me to fly back before I reached Jake and Marco, so no backup would be coming. He didn't tell me why, but I could only assume it was trouble. Maybe he overheard the Controllers saying that they'd go looking for Rachel and Jordan at my place? It'd make sense. In hindsight, it was pretty stupid to try to hide them in my hayloft. But where else could we?

I was out of range of Tobias again when I tried asking what the new plan was. So I could only hope he and Rachel knew what they were doing.

While flying, I noticed that there were a lot more police sirens than usual down in the streets below. Especially this far away from the city center. Controllers looking for Rachel and Jordan, I guess. I just hoped they'd find a safe place to hide somewhere, some alley or something.

As I got closer to home, I started to realize that a lot of the flashing police lights were heading in the direction of my home. So that's definitely what had happened. There would be Controllers all over my house in no time.

Did you know ospreys can pull eighty miles per hour if they want to? Okay, that's when they're diving. But still, they don't have to slow down for corners or traffic. I'd be back before the police would arrive. Although I'd be lying if I told you it wasn't close.

As long as I'd be back in bed by the time they arrive, they wouldn't find anything suspicious, I told myself, trying not to panic at the thought of Yeerks in my home. I've been careful. I've even been getting rid of footprints after our meetings in the barn. That wasn't particularly difficult with all the usual animal footprints intermixed, but still. And Rachel had just run out of her stockpile of emergency clothing, too.

Wait, no, the hayloft! What if they'd find the two old travelling mattresses and blankets that I'd left for Rachel and Jordan? Would I have time to get rid of those in time? I flew like my life depended on it.

But I was too late. I hadn't factored in that the police would be able to drive faster as they got further out of the city, and I was getting seriously exhausted. I just went straight for my open bedroom window. They'd be here in minutes!

Demorph!

Two minutes later, I was back in my pajamas lying in bed like nothing happened. Well, aside from the expression on my face.

I heard the cars pull up our driveway. I'd seen at least two normal police cars and a police van a little further out. The sirens were already off for some reason. Were they trying to catch us by surprise?

Suddenly, WHAM!

It came from the front door. Were they just ramming right through it without even trying the doorbell?!

"Police! You are surrounded, come out with your hands above your heads!"

WHAM!

I heard my parents scramble out of bed two rooms over.

"Police?" I heard Mom exclaim. "What's going on?!"

WHAM!

"I don't know, honey, but just do what they say," Dad responded. "Cassie!" he yelled to me.

"Yeah, I'm up, coming!"

WHAM! CRUNCH

I saw our battered front door lying on the hallway floor as I went downstairs after my parents. Two policemen armed with automatic weapons and another with a battering ram were standing on top of it.

Oh man! This was a lot worse than I'd thought. The Yeerks were really serious about this! I put my hands up as instructed.

"Walter, Michelle, and Cassie," one of the officers called, adding our family name. "You are under arrest on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking! Come out with your hands behind your backs, one by one. Walter, you first."

They cuffed and searched us one by one as they read us our rights. Then we were shoved into the back of one of the police cars.

There wasn't any drug trafficking, of course. That was ridiculous. They just wanted us out of there so they could roam freely through our house. The thought physically sickened me. I felt completely helpless. I could only hope they'd leave the animals alone.

It took me a moment to realize what this _really_ meant. They could just take us right down to the Yeerk pool! There wasn't a thing I could do to stop them if they did!

It was happening. It was actually happening. My friends and I were now the number one targets for infestation. They wouldn't take any chances.

Heck, maybe they got to Rachel already, and already know everything. It would all be over soon.

We had lost.

"It'll be okay, honey," Mom said, seeing how distraught I was. "We don't have anything to hide." Then she added, _almost_ accusingly, "Do we?"

I didn't respond. What was I to tell them? "No, I don't sell drugs?" I _wished_ that was all I did. So I just stared, tears in my eyes.

I could morph, I guess. Go out fighting, like Rachel would. But it wouldn't matter. They'd stun me with the Dracon beams that I'm sure they were carrying, before I'd even have a chance to finish morphing, and they'd radio it in to the precinct immediately.

Besides, I didn't know how much they knew yet. If they didn't know I was an "Andalite bandit" and all this was just to find Rachel, morphing now would ruin what little chance we had left to come out of all this alive and free.

No, all I could do was sit here and pretend to be a normal human.

"Cassie, is there something you'd like to tell us? You know, before the police do?" Dad asked. He sounded more disappointed than angry.

"No," I lied. I wanted to tell them everything.

He shook his head. I've had to come up with so many stupid excuses for being home late ever since I'd become an Animorph – something that I never did before then – that they often suspected that something was going on.

"Where did we go wrong?" he mumbled to himself.

I felt absolutely awful. I'm not the kind of teen who rebels against her parents, at least not yet I guess. I couldn't imagine it. This was the first time _ever_ where they were _this_ disappointed in me. Where they flat out did not believe that I hadn't done anything wrong.

I couldn't even bring myself to look outside. I knew where they'd be taking us. The nearest functional Yeerk pool entrance. All I could do was stare at the floor. At least my parents would know why I've been lying to them after being infested.

But at least one eternity later, when we were finally told to get out of the car, we weren't at a Yeerk pool entrance. They'd taken us to the police station, at least a mile away from the pool.

Did they not suspect me? Could it be?

The police took me to an interrogation room, much like the ones you always see on TV. With one of those mirror walls that isn't really a mirror but a one-way window. They sat me down, and then left me there alone for a long time.

It gave me time to think. If they knew I was one of their infamous "Andalite" bandits, but human, they wouldn't have just left me there. But maybe they considered the possibility of me being an Andalite in morph, in which case they might just leave me here for over two hours to see if I'd demorph back to Andalite.

What I truly didn't understand though, is why they didn't just stick a Yeerk between my ears and got it over with. Had they run out of Yeerks to assign to new hosts, maybe? In that case, them having had to infest all those people at the mall today might have just saved us.

In any case, I was getting more and more confident that they didn't have anything on me. Except for the fact that my parents suspected me of something bad, and that they'd probably find the two mattresses in the hayloft. I'd have to come up with an excuse for that, and it'd have to be good.

Suddenly it was obvious.

This was going to be painful.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

 _(Back to Rachel, again.)_

I got the car to the forest mostly in one piece, and without the police seeing me. But once there, I wanted to be as far away from the road as I could get, in case they would come looking for us all the way out here. So I went off-road.

I didn't last more than fifty feet before I planted the car into a bush that looked a lot less stubborn than it was. The car audibly complained and a red indicator light came on.

Fine. Whatever! See if I care. The trees were getting too dense to drive through, anyway.

But we were still clearly visible from the road. Anyone driving out here looking for anything would see it. So I did care.

I muttered something to myself that I won't repeat. Then I turned off the part of the headlights that was still working and killed the engine.

"I sweah, if thath clone doesn'th khill uhs, the rheal Mhom will."

I stared at the steering wheel. Well, I was going to have to tell her eventually.

"They're not clones, Jordan. Tobias made that up. It's much worse than that."

"Huh?" she whimpered.

"Those were the real Mom and Sarah. They're being controlled by aliens who got inside their heads. They're called Yeerks."

I said their name with seething hatred and disgust. I was starting to sound like an Andalite.

"I was worried you wouldn't come with me if I'd told you the truth back home. I'm sorry."

She stared at me with fresh tears in her eyes.

"The Yeerks are everywhere," I continued to explain. "They normally do a very good job hiding what they are, because they can read their host's thoughts and memories. That's why we can't go to the hospital, or to Cassie's, or anywhere else where there's people. They know that we know what they are. They won't stop looking. And when they come here they'll see the car for sure. So we have to get out of here, into the forest."

She looked out into the pitch black darkness through the windshield like I was asking the impossible of her. Not because she's hurt so bad, but because she's also still scared of the dark.

"I'll carry you. Give me a minute to morph my grizzly bear."

"Ghrithly beah?!"

I got out of the car, and then started to strip down to my morphing outfit. She watched me in the glow of the interior light, scared and confused.

"I can't morph loose clothing. It'll just tear up around me. Hold on to it, will you?" I asked, as I threw my jeans in her general direction. "My shoes, too." I grabbed them and handed them to her. She stared back at me.

Then I closed the car door to kill the light and started morphing.

Poor, poor Jordan, I thought to myself while feeling the changes to my body set in. At least we all had a couple days' time to come to terms with aliens, morphing, and the Yeerk invasion. She had to do it in minutes, while possibly mortally wounded by her own mother.

People think that bears have poor eyesight. While they're not nearly as great as an eagle's, they're better than human eyes. Especially at night. I could see Jordan more and more clearly as I looked at her, still sitting in the car, looking utterly defeated and scared. I mean, I couldn't see her as well as my human eyes would have seen her in broad daylight, but I could make her out alright.

She probably couldn't see me at all, even ten feet in front of her. The sky was overcast and it was new moon, so it was almost pitch black out here. That'd help with hiding, at least. But it'd also make it that much more difficult for Tobias to find us. His eyes aren't very good in the dark, either.

≺I'm ready. Open your door, then I'll grab you.≻

She did. She shrieked as the light came back on, even knowing what was coming. I grabbed her.

≺Did I hurt you?≻ I asked, as I picked her up and closed the car door with my butt to turn off the interior light.

"Ih'll be fhine, jhusth theatch me hohw thoo mohph alrheadhy!"

She put her left arm around me and held on, my shoes and clothes stuck between us. I felt her blood and tears slowly trickle into my fur.

≺I need the Escafil device for that. The thing Tobias is bringing.≻

I headed into the forest with her.

"Ith Thobiahs human thoo?"

≺He… used to be. Tobias, me, Cassie, Cousin Jake, and Marco can all morph. We use it to fight the Yeerks. There's also an Andalite in our group, his name is Ax. Andalites are the aliens who invented morphing. They also fight the Yeerks, so they're the good guys. Ax got stuck here on Earth. He's helping us.≻

She was silent after that aside from the occasional whimper, probably scared to death of the dark.

Carrying her was exhausting. Not that bears don't have stamina or have trouble carrying a 90-something pound load. I can tell you from experience that that's not the case. But I had to walk upright like a human. It would've been much easier for me if she'd been on my back, but I didn't know how to get her there without _her_ climbing on top of me. And with a broken arm and leg, that simply wasn't happening.

I found a clearing after about ten minutes of walking. I sat Jordan down against a tree just beyond the tree line, so I could get out in the open quickly when I'd hear Tobias call for me, but we weren't out in plain sight until then. I wasn't worried about helicopters or anything; I'd hear those coming long before they'd spot me in these conditions. But the Yeerks have cloaking technology, and their ships are noiseless.

I stayed in my grizzly morph. That way, I could see and hear around me, defend or move Jordan if I had to for some reason, and respond to Tobias when he'd get in range immediately.

I settled down against a tree next to her and looked at her again. Even in the dark, I could swear that she was getting paler. She was losing blood, that's for sure.

≺Hurry up, Tobias,≻ I thought to him, knowing that he'd probably still be out of range.

≺How're you feeling?≻ I then asked Jordan.

"Evhythinh huhths ahnd I'hm scahed halfh thoo death, Hrachehl," she said passive-aggressively.

≺I know… But are you feeling light-headed?≻

"Whyh?"

≺Blood loss does that to you. First you feel light-headed, then you want to fall asleep, and eventually…≻

She thought about that for a second. "Jhusth a litthle lhighth-headhed."

After a while, she added, "Howh lhongh have yhou bheenh dhoingh thith?"

I thought back. ≺Couple months, I guess.≻

"Dhidh yhou gheth hurth befohre?"

≺Oh yeah. Just today at the mall I had to cut my own legs off with a Yeerk weapon.≻

She stared at me, not sure if I was joking.

≺I'm serious. Morphing really _does_ fix you up.≻

"… Soh yhou _wehre_ ath the mahll?"

I told her what had really happened. About the Yeerk pool, about the Hork-Bajir, about us making a mission out of it. About how our actions hopefully rescued that little girl that I'd been carrying, and all the other people who were still in the mall, but not Mom or Sarah. About how the Yeerks captured me, but I was broken back out by Marco and Jake. About what would have happened to my friends and me if they'd managed to put a Yeerk inside me then. Why we can never be infested.

"Bhuth… thath mheanhs thath Mhomh andh Sahah knowh whath they dhid thoo uhs?"

If I hadn't been a bear thought-speaking, I'd have choked up. ≺Yes, Jordan, they do.≻

We were silent for a while after that, thinking about them. I'd noticed Jordan was already starting to struggle to stay awake when I finally heard Tobias. Barely, but he was there.

≺Rachel, can you hear me yet? If you can, morph and respond.≻

I shot up.

≺Yes! I hear you! Do you have the blue box?≻

≺Yeah, I'm carrying it, where are you?≻

≺Out in a clearing in the forest. I'm in my grizzly bear morph.≻

≺Uh oh, are you in trouble?≻

≺No, just had to carry Jordan away from the car. And at least I can see _something_ with these eyes.≻

≺Tell my about it. I'm half blind right now. Can you growl for me or something?≻

I did. Jordan shrieked. She didn't hear our conversation, I realized. I wasn't used to including her in our thought-speak conversations yet, and neither was Tobias.

≺It's okay, I'm just growling to let Tobias know where we are.≻

≺I heard you, I'm on my way. How's Jordan?≻

≺She's lost a lot of blood already. Hurry up.≻

I had to growl for him a couple more times. But he found me. I'd started morphing back to human as he pulled in.

≺Man, let's not do this again anytime soon. This air is completely worthless. I'm exhausted.≻

≺Would you like to swap places?≻ I asked him hot-headedly. ≺I don't give a rat's butt about thermals right now, my sister is dying!≻

≺Right, sorry.≻

I was half-human, half-bear when I reached her. She'd fallen asleep.

"Don't you dare," I growled with my half-bear mouth, in a way that words can't describe.

I shook her, and she woke up.

"Whuh…?"

I pushed the Escafil device into her hand while holding on to it. That's how Ax used it on David, and how Elfangor used it on my friends and me. Hopefully it works when a human does it, too.

"Whah…"

"Okay, now touch Tobias and focus on acquiring his DNA."

"Whuh… Hohw?"

"Just think about it, it'll work. It has to." Then I added, to Tobias, "Is it?"

Animals and people get sort of sleepy when they're being acquired. Cassie had acquired me once for this thing that I won't bother explaining to you now. It's a sort of soothing, relaxing feeling.

≺Y-yeah, I think it is.≻

"Okay, now focus on becoming Tobias. Picture him in your mind."

It took a moment for the first changes to set in, but it was working.

My sister was safe. For now.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Jordan tried frantically to shake her clothes off when she finished morphing. The hawk instincts inside her were trying to bolt, but I held her down.

"Jordan, fight it. Take control of the animal instincts, don't let them control you. You're safe, I'm right here."

It took several minutes for her to calm down.

≺S-Sis?≻

"Shhh, you're fine. Everything's going to be okay."

≺I… I'm a bird?≻

"You sure are. I'm going to free you from your clothes now, okay? Don't struggle or try to take off."

≺My clothes?≻

"They don't morph with you, remember?"

≺Oh…≻

"How're you feeling? Are you still hurt?"

≺No… Just tired. And scared. I thought you said birds can see really well?≻

≺In daylight, they can,≻ Tobias responded. ≺But my eyes aren't much better than yours at night. Especially not in a freaky night like this one. These aren't the best conditions for a first flying lesson.≻

"I don't think that'd be a good idea, anyway. We wouldn't be able to take our clothes with us. I'd manage with my leotard, but Jordan would be completely naked."

≺What?!≻

"So just morph back to human now."

≺But you just said I'd be naked!≻

≺I'll look away, don't worry,≻ Tobias quickly said. ≺Not that I can see much of anything right now, anyway.≻

"Your clothes are right there. I'll look away too," I added.

She took a moment to respond again.

≺S-so, should I just think of my own body now?≻

"Yeah."

Tobias and I turned our backs to her.

≺So, any ideas?≻ Tobias asked me.

I didn't have any, yet. So I started thinking.

Problem one: we needed to do something about the grizzly footsteps and blood trail that Jordan and I had left behind.

Problem two: we needed a place to spend the night. Preferably somewhere that's relatively safe. These forests are part of a big national park, with local wildlife including wolves and bears, so the Yeerks weren't the only things we'd have to watch out for if we'd stay out here.

Problem three: I was starting to get worried that Visser Three might punish the Yeerks in Mom and Sarah for losing us.

Finally, problem four: what the heck were we going to do with the rest of our lives?

"Eww…" I heard Jordan groan behind me.

I'd been lost in thought for a while. She was probably struggling to put her bloody and torn clothes back on by now.

Okay, let's take this one step at a time. As soon as the Controllers find our car, they'd follow the trail here. So the way in which we leave from here would be important.

"I guess…" I started thinking out loud, "we could make it look like Jordan died in the car, I fled, and a grizzly found her and ate her."

"What?! B-but… Then Mom and Dad and Sarah and everyone would think I'm dead!"

"That's exactly the point!" I said, frustrated. "The Yeerks won't stop looking for us until there's Yeerks between our ears, we die, or they think we died. I prefer the latter."

≺Or they _think_ there's Yeerks between your ears…≻

"What?" I asked, confused and annoyed.

≺We could ask the Chee for help.≻

I hadn't thought of that.

The Chee are a group of alien androids who got stuck on Earth at least hundreds of years ago. They were created by peaceful aliens called Pemalites, as servants and (mostly) friends. When the Pemalites were attacked by not-so-peaceful aliens, some Pemalites and Chee fled to Earth. The Pemalites who came here all died from the lasting effects of the biological weaponry that the rest of them were annihilated with, but the Chee survived.

They're programmed to be pacifists. They can never harm a living being. That's why they weren't very useful while trying to protect the Pemalites, and aren't very useful to our cause now. But they try to help us now and then, nonetheless. We're allies.

More important is how the Chee fit in. They can project powerful holograms around themselves to make them seem human. They're so convincing that even the Yeerks don't know they exist. The Chee with which we talk the most is currently pretending to be a boy called Erek. We go to school with him, and– well, I guess I _went_ to school with him, and we never noticed anything weird about him. Until we saw him at a gathering of The Sharing while in spider morph. Spider eyes are sensitive to different frequencies of light than human eyes. It allowed us to see through his hologram.

The Yeerks think Erek is a Controller, that a Yeerk is controlling him. But it's actually the other way around. Erek keeps the Yeerk alive within himself, but can read its mind and thoughts and memories. The Yeerk has no control over him whatsoever. When he goes to the Yeerk pool to pretend to let his Yeerk absorb nutrients and Kandrona rays, he simply extends his hologram somewhat to make it look like the Yeerk leaves his ear and enters it again later. So while Erek can't help us fight directly, he can spy for us.

It could be really good, actually. If two of the Chee pretend to be us and get themselves "infested" like Erek, the Yeerks would believe whatever lies we'd want them to believe about who we really are.

But would they help us? Not all Chee are as happy about taking sides as Erek is. Most of them feel like they shouldn't intervene. Their programming doesn't make much of a distinction between humans and Yeerks. The only things they really care about are dogs, which are apparently some weird mix of Pemalite and wolf. That's why dogs are always so happy. The Chee "fight" the Yeerks because they would have no use for dogs after enslaving humanity and would probably get rid of them, but are neutral otherwise.

Also, it wouldn't necessarily do Jordan and me any good. We wouldn't be able to pass for Controllers like the Chee could, so they'd have to take over our lives permanently or pretend to die. Either way, we wouldn't get our lives back.

"It doesn't really matter for now. We can't be sure if the Chee would help us that way, and even if they would, the real Jordan and I would still have to disappear."

≺I guess you're right.≻

"Are you done yet, back there?" I then asked impatiently.

"Yeah…"

I walked back to the tree where I'd been waiting for Tobias and started morphing back to grizzly.

"I'll turn grizzly again, and carry Jordan and our clothes away to the nearest stream. That should mask our footprints. Do you know of anything nearby, Tobias?"

≺Yeah, there should be something wide enough about twenty minutes away at walking speed. I'll guide you.≻

And so, I morphed grizzly again and took Jordan with me to the stream, carrying her on my back this time.

It started raining while we were walking. The wind was picking up, too. I felt Jordan shivering on my back; she must have been freezing. She'd be in her comfy warm bed asleep right now if it weren't for the Yeerks and that stupid Hork-Bajir. Couldn't he have picked a different exit? Or a school day?

I knew that it wasn't fair to be angry at the Hork-Bajir. But I had to be angry at _something_.

Well, at least the rain would muddle up our tracks a little.

When we got to the stream, I walked upstream through it for another twenty minutes or so before coming back out. The rocky bedding didn't allow for any footprints, so if the Yeerks would try to follow my tracks from the car, they'd almost certainly give up here.

After that, we headed for the old shack that we'd kept Jake locked up in while he was a Controller. It wasn't exactly a five-star hotel, but any roof over your head is better than nothing when it's raining, and it was half-decent shelter from the wind.

I demorphed and lay down on the wet dirt floor. I can't tell you how exhausted I was. Just that morning, everything had still been fine.

Here come the nightmares.

I was only wearing my leotard, because the clothes that Jordan had carried along for me were soaked from the rain. But it wasn't that simple for Jordan. I felt her shivering as she huddled up against me.

"I'm freezing… Can't I just morph into Tobias for the night?"

Tobias answered for me. ≺You can only stay in morph for two hours. If you stay longer, you get stuck forever. That's what happened to me.≻

She groaned.

"I'm so sorry about all this, Jordan…"

"It's not your fault, it's those stupid Yeerks."

Her voice was already carrying that same seething hatred while saying the word "Yeerk" that the rest of us feel toward them. She'd make a fine Animorph.

I sighed, then put my arm around her and rubbed her back to try to warm her up. Tobias flew off to rest in a nearby tree, instinctively preferring that over the shed, despite the rain.

"Just try to get some sleep."


	13. Chapter 13 (Cassie)

**Chapter 13 (Cassie)**

* * *

 _(You can safely skip to Chapter 14 if you want the usual single-storyteller Animorphs experience.)_

I'd fallen asleep somehow, because a police inspector woke me up. I stared at his forehead still half-asleep, wondering if there was a Yeerk in there.

"Would you like something to drink?" he asked.

Well, if he was a Controller, at least he was hiding it.

"I would like some water, please."

He walked out again and returned with a glass of water a minute later. Then he uncuffed me, sat down opposite to me, and lit a cigarette. I drank some of the water.

"So," he started. "Why don't you begin by telling me why _you_ think you're here?"

"The policemen who arrested us said it was for drug trafficking," I said plainly, and stared at the table.

"True. So, are you involved in any of that?"

I shook my head. "No, sir."

"Any idea why we suspect you?"

"No."

It wasn't that hard to lie. All I had to do was focus on the drug trafficking part. I've never even come close to that stuff in my life. At least, if you don't count the meds we use to treat the animals. I'm sure some of those could be used that way.

"Well… Maybe because of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic?" I added. "We stock meds to treat the animals. But we have all the necessary paperwork for that."

He blew out a puff of smoke. Not at me to taunt me or anything, just casually. But I hated it anyway. Smoking reeks, I don't understand why people do it.

"You're friends with Rachel, right?" He'd used her full name, but I'm not going to tell you what that is. Then he even took a photo of her from one of his pockets and showed it to me.

"Yes, sir."

"Do you see her often?"

"Yes, we were hanging out together just this afternoon."

"Would you mind telling me where you were?"

Oh no. My parents would tell them we were out shopping, because I'd told them that before we left. But I couldn't tell _him_ that. Tobias had told me that the Yeerks were suspecting that Rachel was at the mall with Jordan instead of me, but I couldn't tell them _that_ either. Could I? Would I be ratting them out, or would it not matter because that's their working theory already anyway? I took too long to respond.

"I see," he said. "Your parents said you went to the mall together, is that true?"

Wait, I can use this.

"Well… Initially, we did. I'd asked her to help me buy something… special, for… a friend." It wasn't even a lie up to this point. Not really. "Then we split up and I went…"

How do I say this?

"…out with him?" the inspector finished for me.

I was going to say something less… powerful, but okay. Fine.

"S-something like that…"

He didn't press me on it, thank goodness. I guess if there was a Yeerk inside him, and there probably was, it would not have been interested in my private life one single bit. He just stared at the photo for a moment, thinking.

"At what time did you leave the mall? Do you remember?"

The Hork-Bajir escaped around two o'clock.

"J-just before two, I think," I lied.

He sighed, thinking again for a moment. He put out his cigarette.

"That's all I need to know for now. You and your parents are free to go. But I'd stay away from that friend Rachel of yours. We've reason to believe she's involved in a local drug sting. You wouldn't want to get involved in that too, now would you?"

"No, sir."

"Give me a call if you see her acting suspicious, okay?" He gave me his card.

"Yes, sir."

"Good girl."

He let me out of the room. My parents were already waiting for me outside. They looked relieved. I ran at them and they hugged me. Then the police were kind enough to take us back home.

We were all silent for a while, relieved that we weren't in trouble. Mom was the first to break the silence.

"So, the police told us about your little hideout in the hayloft. Mind telling us what that's for?"

Well, here goes.

I thought about Jake and me doing… Well. It's not something we'd ever done, yet… Kissing. I thought about it because it'd make me blush for sure.

Mom and Dad know how embarrassed I get about these sorts of things. They actually threaten me sometimes about having to do "the talk". It's like an alternative punishment of theirs. In reality, they mostly just trust me to be smart (and embarrassed) enough not to do anything stupid.

"Well, just let us know if Jake ever tries to do anything that you're not okay with." She smirked at Dad, and he smirked back.

I wanted to morph to flea and never come back out again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

* * *

 _(Back to Rachel, again.)_

I awoke the next morning from a beam of sunlight shining on my face through a crack in the wall. I blinked at it. Then I sat up, for the first time properly _seeing_ the state of us.

Jordan was still asleep. She looked like she was still all kinds of messed up, despite not actually being physically hurt anymore. The blood and dirt stains had all kind of intermixed in the rain, making her clothes look more like dirty rags used to clean up a crime scene than actual clothing. The right side of her shirt was almost completely torn apart, probably from hitting the tarmac after the crash. Her pants were also torn up.

Basically, if I'd have seen her like this on a photo, I'd have been certain that she was dead. But I could see her move as she breathed.

My clothes weren't in a much better state. They reeked, too; they were still wet, slowly drying in a pile a yard away. On the dirt floor of the shed. I groaned, and hung them out over a beam.

Then I walked out into the sunlight and stretched. The air was still cold and moist, but the sky was almost completely clear now. It felt kind of nice after the bitter cold of the night.

"Tobias?" I whispered. I didn't want to wake Jordan, and I was sure he'd hear me anyway if he was around and awake.

≺I'm here. You okay?≻

"Given the circumstances."

≺Jordan?≻

"Still asleep. You wouldn't happen to have any human food or drinkable water, would you?"

≺Sorry.≻

"Any idea what time it is?"

≺Probably around eight in the morning.≻

I was about to ask him to go find the others when it occurred to me that I never even bothered to ask Tobias about Cassie!

"Did you manage to get Cassie to go back home yesterday? What happened?"

≺I got hold of her pretty quickly, don't worry. She wasn't that far out yet, so I don't think she'd reached Jake or Marco yet. But I'm sure she would've outflown the police. She'll be fine.≻

"Maybe you should go get her and the others. Hide the Escafil device again, too."

≺Me? Not "us?"≻

"I'm staying here with Jordan," I said determinedly. That was not a point of discussion.

≺Ugh, fine. But you're still going to be the one who does the explaining.≻

That's what this was about?

"Whatever. Just tell them to come here and say nothing else then. I'll gladly have a hearty discussion with anyone who tries to tell me that I should have left my sister at home with those Yeerks by herself."

I was already angry again. Can you really blame me? My human life was over, and not in the usual melodramatic way. And I was supposed to have left my sister to rot, too?

Tobias flew off without saying anything else. I guess he wasn't interested in opening that can of worms.

"Rachel?" I heard Jordan whimper from inside the shack. So I went back inside and hugged her.

I figured now would be a good time to teach Jordan how to fly and how to morph tight clothing. At least she'd be able to morph her underwear.

Cassie and Ax arrived first, about forty-five minutes later. Cassie was in her osprey morph again, Ax came in his natural form.

≺Tobias?≻ Cassie asked Jordan. ≺You're back here already?≻

≺She's not Tobias,≻ I answered for Jordan.

≺ _She?_ ≻

Jordan flew back into the shed. She wanted none of this, and in hindsight, Ax probably scared her. But I couldn't give two feathers about their opinions on this matter.

≺You used the Escafil device? Does Prince Jake know about this?≻ Ax asked.

≺Jordan would have died if I hadn't,≻ I said flatly.

≺After what has happened with David, I believe Prince Jake would not approve of this,≻ Ax said.

≺She's my _sister_ , Ax. _His_ cousin.≻

That was enough to make him understand. Andalites don't always get human emotions, but they do have a strong concept of family.

≺I'll explain everything when the rest gets here,≻ I added.

≺Well,≻ Cassie said bitterly, both wanting to change the subject and vent, ≺it looks like my night wasn't _as_ bad as yours, but I did spend half of it locked up in an interrogation room, and most of the other half helping my parents to clean up after the Yeerks. They literally turned my house upside down looking for you.≻

That caught Ax by surprise. ≺They turned your house upside down? How?≻

≺It's an expression, Ax. They searched it, and broke a lot of our stuff doing so. We don't have a front door anymore, for one thing. We had to board it up.≻

≺Do… Do they suspect you?≻ I asked.

≺No. They suspect _you_ , though, for sure. Their story was that you're involved in some drug trafficking sting and they suspected we were helping you. That's how they could legally tear my house apart.≻

≺Did they find the sleeping place you'd prepared for Jordan and me?≻

≺Yes.≻

No explanation followed. ≺… And? How did you explain that?≻

≺It's not important.≻

Ah. She covered it up by saying that it was for her and Jake. Wow.

≺And they believed you? I'm impressed.≻

≺I must admit that I do not fully understand this conversation,≻ Ax interrupted.

≺Can we talk about _anything_ else?≻ Cassie begged.

Jordan peered out of the shack, in human form again. Maybe she felt like she wasn't supposed to be in morph.

"W-what is that thing?" she asked.

≺That's Ax, the Andalite that I talked to you about,≻ I replied.

She cautiously got out of the shed to get a better look.

≺Whoa, what happened to her?!≻ Cassie shrieked at the sight of her.

≺I told you, she would have died if she hadn't morphed. I'm not making this up. Mom ran our car right into us. I was lucky enough not to have broken anything, so I dragged her into the car and fled with it while Tobias was distracting Mom.≻

That shut them up. Good.

≺Then it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Jordan,≻ Ax finally said. ≺I believe it is customary among your species to shake hands in such events.≻

He held out his hand.

Jordan let out a nervous chuckle. I would have full-on burst out laughing if I hadn't been a bird.

≺Go on, shake his hand.≻ I said. ≺It's okay, he only sounds stuck up.≻

≺Stuck up?≻ he asked, and looked up with his stalk eyes.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

* * *

Cassie and I demorphed while we waited for the others to get here. Tobias got back pretty quickly and explained that it would take Jake and Marco a while. Jake because he had to wait for a normal time to get up on a Sunday to not arouse suspicion with Tom, and Marco because Tobias had told him to bring food and water with him. Tobias hadn't told him why, but he'd agreed, despite living the furthest away. It made sense for him to do it, because he was the only one who wasn't being actively suspected of anything.

They eventually arrived together. They were in wolf form, each carrying a grocery bag in their mouth. Apparently they hadn't smelled Jordan yet. Maybe because her smell would have been pretty close to mine.

≺Rachel, would you mind telling me why I'm having a picnic out here in creepy-shack town instead of sleeping in on this wonderful Sunday morning?≻ Marco asked before he could even see us.

Jordan shrieked when she saw movement in the bushes. Marco hadn't included her in his thought-speak.

≺Jordan?!≻ Jake exclaimed, not including her either. He'd recognized her voice. ≺Marco, stop!≻

Both of them stayed just out of sight.

"W-what was that?" Jordan asked, cowering behind me.

≺Tobias, why didn't you tell us that we'd have company?! Then we wouldn't have come in morph!≻

"Because it doesn't matter," I responded for him. "I told her everything and she can morph now."

Even Ax was staring at me for how passive-aggressively I'd said it.

≺Rachel, have you _completely_ lost your mind?!≻

That was Marco. Jake's anger response is usually silence.

"She would have died if Rachel hadn't, just _look_ at her…" Cassie came to my defense.

She didn't have to. Let them rage, I thought. I can't really explain it, but it made me feel better somehow. To have them share my anger at the situation.

They slowly, dangerously emerged from the bushes. Jordan shrieked again, still cowering behind me.

≺Jordan, it's okay, it's just Jake and Marco,≻ Tobias said to Jordan and me alone. ≺They're only angry at your sister. Show them how hurt you got yesterday.≻

She gingerly stepped away from the safety of my back. You could tell from Jake's and Marco's stance and tail position that they were taken aback.

≺Whoa!≻ Jake yelled.

≺Oh man! Jeez, I thought nothing would trump your dumpster look, Rachel, but this… _This_ takes the cake!≻

They were including Jordan in thought-speak now. She crawled behind my back again and whimpered. She has this silly crush on Marco, don't ask me why.

≺What in the world happened?≻ Jake asked.

I explained everything down to the tiniest detail that I could remember. I wanted them to understand what Jordan and I had gone through that evening and night. Then, only _then_ they could judge me.

But they didn't. Like me, they were mostly just angry at the situation.

Cassie and Jake also gave their versions of the story. Jake had woken up in the middle of the night to a phone call for Tom from Visser Three himself, but nothing out of the ordinary happened after that. So they didn't suspect him much.

Then we had breakfast. Marco had brought what was left of his stash of maple-and-ginger-flavored instant oatmeal, water, and some plastic cutlery and plates.

He'd saved some of that oatmeal, just in case, he'd said. That specific kind has something in it that makes Yeerks go insane. We'd planned to dump half a truckload in the Yeerk pool using our mole tunnels, but that didn't work out so well. So we'd given up on the idea, and Marco was left with a huge stash of it.

It wasn't great to eat cold like that. But it filled us up.

"So," Jake finally said. "Anyone have a plan?"

Marco shrugged. "Rachel and Jordan have to die, that much is clear."

I was used to this sort of thing from Marco, but I felt Jordan tense up next to me, not sure if he was serious.

"The question is: how do we go about doing that without _actually_ killing them."

≺And convince the Yeerks that the rest of us have nothing to do with them,≻ Tobias said.

≺The Yeerks would have to see it for themselves. Otherwise they may well suspect a trick,≻ Ax added.

"It'd also be nice if we could somehow involve Mom and Sarah in this," I said. "Make it look like they're the ones who recaptured us. I don't want to think about what Visser Three has in store for them otherwise."

≺I'm thinking we ask the Chee for help,≻ Tobias said. ≺The Yeerks only believe that Rachel and Jordan were at the mall when the Hork-Bajir escaped, and that an Andalite acquired Rachel to try to bypass the biofilter thing. But they also think that at least one Andalite was protecting them afterwards, because I attacked Rachel's mom. So let's give them all of that. Have a Chee cast a projection of Rachel. Have that projection follow her mother and sister to the gathering this evening. Then let them capture her and drag her along, while she screams hell and fury at them for indirectly killing Jordan. Once there, the six of us show up in battle morph, kill Rachel's projection, and bolt. It'd seem like we'd be protecting information about what we're doing or where we're hiding or something.≻

"Wow, you really thought this whole Chee thing through," I responded, impressed.

"I like this, we might even save some people along the way," Cassie said. "The people from the mall yesterday would get to see us come up and kill some girl in battle morph, and then see it covered up again later… That _has_ to scare them away from The Sharing, wouldn't you think?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jake said. "Any objections?"

"What do I do?" Jordan asked me. "I want to help, too."

"I think it's best if you stay out of this… I don't want you getting hurt again."

"Well tough, I don't want you to get hurt either. I'm not just going to sit here!"

I looked around the group for help, but I didn't get any. I guess that was fair, considering how I'd been behaving.

I sighed. "We'll think of something."

≺I should point out that it is vital that the Chee doing the projection is not caught by the Yeerks. If the Yeerks were to acquire a Chee and replicate its physical power and artificial intelligence, they would become virtually unstoppable,≻ Ax pointed out. ≺Even for Andalites.≻

"That's a pretty big problem," Jake said.

We all stared for a while, thinking.

"Ax, how big would one of those hologram emitters be?" Marco asked.

≺You would have to ask the Chee. But it would have to be fairly small for it to fit inside their bodies.≻

"What're you thinking?" Jake asked Marco.

"That there are seven of us now, and that the Yeerks don't know about it. Jordan could carry it while safe in some morph."

She perked up immediately when she heard him say her name. I covered my face. Man, adding to her crush on Marco was all we needed. Not that Marco knew about that. I never granted him the satisfaction of knowing that some girl out there actually liked him.

"Assuming, of course, that the Chee would A, just give us a hologram emitter, B, she'd be able to carry it, and C, she'd be able to stay far enough away to stay out of harm's way," he added. "And this whole plan could still go south pretty badly even then. We'd have to take Rachel's dead body back with us, or it wouldn't take them long to work out that it was a trick. Then they'd go ballistic, and it'd probably be the end of us. But at least they wouldn't get their hands on any Chee technology."

"But if they can't confirm that I'm dead, how do we know for sure that they'll stop looking for me?" I objected.

He looked at me grimly. "We'll just have to make sure that there can't be any doubt about that."

We all shivered at the thought.

"So one of us is going to have to kill a projection of Rachel. Gruesomely," Cassie said. She looked sick already.

One of us. Slowly, everyone's gaze turned to me. Of course.

"Fine, I'll do it," I said.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

* * *

"You know we are incapable of violence," Erek wondered. "How do you believe we can help you in your fight?"

The seven of us had flown over to Erek's house in bird of prey morphs. All of us demorphed, except for Tobias, obviously, and Jordan, who'd be practically naked.

We explained the situation. Erek didn't say anything until we finished.

"What you want is not easy," he finally said.

"But will you help us?" I asked impatiently.

"As Ax already pointed out, we can't risk Chee technology falling into the wrong hands, so I also believe that a Chee coming along pretending to be Rachel would be too risky. However, while I can give you information about the Yeerks like I have been doing, I cannot give you direct access to Chee technology. No offense, but humans and Andalites both still wage wars and condone violence."

So he wasn't going to help? I was ready to explode, but Jake gestured for me to keep my mouth shut.

"However, I believe there is a way. Our 'hologram' technology is somewhat different from what the Andalites and Yeerks use. Instead of having a single, large hologram emitter, we use fleets of millions of airborne devices, each not much larger than a speck of dust. They hover around us to form the surfaces of our bodies. This is how we are able to make tangible 'holograms' without requiring the massive amounts of energy needed to do that from a distance."

I looked at Ax. I didn't really bother to try to understand what Erek was saying, but for as far as Andalites have face expressions, he seemed to be a combination of shocked and impressed. Andalites are just a bit arrogant about their technological superiority. They don't like to be confronted with the fact that they're not actually that much more advanced than humans. At least not compared to the Pemalites and the Chee.

"Therefore, I should be able to follow you along at a distance to create an image of Rachel, while rendering myself invisible." He paused for a second. "There is just one problem. I do not believe that I will be able to simulate Rachel accurately enough to fool the Controllers, considering that some are family. Rachel would need to control the hologram directly. We have the technology to do this, but she would have to stay here."

Stay here? But then…

"And we need six of us in battle morph, or the Yeerks might realize that Rachel is one of us," Marco added.

Jordan would have to go out there and face a whole horde of Controllers? Unacceptable!

"Erek, can't you just create a second hologram of one of us in battle morph?" Jake said.

Yes!

"No. Well, I could, but it wouldn't be able to hurt anyone. I could see that becoming a problem for you. Neither would Rachel's projection, by the way, but she's supposed to look defenseless."

"Then you project Jordan instead of me!" I exclaimed the moment I came up with it. "Then she can stay safe, here!"

≺I'm really sorry, Rachel, but that wouldn't work,≻ Tobias said. ≺Your mother saw how hurt Jordan was. You practically had to drag her into the car. There's no way Jordan would be up and about again today without being able to morph.≻

≺Rachel, don't worry,≻ Jordan said. ≺I can do this.≻

"No. No! It's not happening. I'm not losing you, too. You're staying out of this!"

≺'I'm not losing you, too?' You… You'd have me do the same! Sit back here and maybe watch _you_ get hurt? I just lost my family to the Yeerks too, you know!≻

"Well, you're younger than I am."

≺Less than two years!≻

"I'm the older sister, and I'm saying it's not happening, so it's not happening!"

Jake interrupted us. "Rachel, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" He looked angry. Was he angry at _me_? What?

He pulled me into the hallway with him and closed the door.

"Jordan and Tobias would still be able to hear us in their morphs, you know," I whispered.

"I don't care, Rachel!" he yelled.

Okay, so he _was_ angry at me.

"Erek is offering a way out for the two of you," he continued. "Probably the only chance you're going to get. And _you're_ the one who made your sister an Animorph. So –"

I stormed right up into his face the moment he mentioned what I had to do to Jordan.

"I don't believe this! I didn't have a choice, and she's your family, too! I'd expect this from Marco, but you? You'd have her walk into a battle only a day after she even found out about all this?!"

"You're not seeing the big picture here, Rachel!" he yelled back in my face. "The damage has already been done. If we _don't_ do this, the Yeerks will find you and Jordan in no time. And then we're _all_ done for. So this mission is not up for discussion! We _have_ to do this, one way or another."

He was right. But I was angry. I shoved him out of my face. He wasn't expecting it, and almost lost his balance. Then he pointed at me threateningly.

"Don't turn into David, Rachel."

He walked back into the living room and slammed the door at me.

I'd never seen Jake like that before. In hindsight, I realized it was just his way of being protective of us. He didn't want to deal with the consequences of messing this mission up, because he'd already realized what that would mean. Especially if I'd become reckless like this. They'd be forced to get rid of us just like we got rid of David, or do the whole act of "the Andalite bandits getting rid of the difficult humans" for _real_. He'd be losing us to the Yeerks no matter what.

But I wasn't seeing it yet back then. All I could see was Jordan sitting next to me in the car whimpering in pain. I had been all this time, but I'd managed to ignore it until now, like my nightmares. I kicked a side table with all my might and watched the flower pot that had stood on top of it shatter on the floor. Then I went back into the living room, also slammed the door behind me, sat back down, crossed my arms, and pouted. Like a girl half my age told by her parents to go stand in a corner and think about what she's done.

Everyone was silent. I guess they were probably staring at me and Jake, but I just stared intently at the ground, so I couldn't see. All of them would have heard us, of course. A door isn't sound-proof when you're yelling.

"So," Jake eventually broke the silence. I looked up and made a face at him, but he ignored it. "We need to get Jordan a battle morph, and teach her a thing or two about morphing and fighting. We need to turn Rachel into a hologram, and we need to figure out how to kill her and who's going to do it."

"I'll take Jordan to The Gardens," Cassie offered. "Find a way to sneak her into some habitat through the employee access tunnels."

"Then I'm going with you," I said.

" _Then_ are you going to stop behaving like a three-year-old?" Jake responded.

"Yes, Dad."

"Ugh, I'm getting close to _wanting_ to kill you," he lied. At least I think he lied. "Who's going to do that and how?"

"The best way would be to Dracon her…" Marco said. "That doesn't leave a huge mess and can be done from a distance. We could even zap her entire body away that way."

"Except we don't _have_ a Dracon beam anymore, Marco," I snapped at him.

≺Couldn't it just be a hologram, too?≻ Tobias asked.

"No," Erek answered. "My programming does not allow me to simulate weapons in action. I can only simulate the _effects_ of a real weapon, fired by someone else. That's just physics."

Jake sighed. "Okay, hypothetically speaking, what would happen if one of us just rams her head into the ground or something, and we have to run off without her body?"

It took Erek a moment to realize why we thought that was a problem.

"Oh. It wouldn't matter. I only need to stay within range of the 'hologram' while Rachel is alive, in order to maintain communication with the particle fleet. The particles don't have the computational power onboard to simulate something alive, but inanimate objects are not a problem. Unless the Yeerks spend the effort to analyze whether the hologram is real or not, they'd be none the wiser."

"And what if they do?"

"Then the particles would self-destruct. The 'hologram' would disappear, so it would definitely be a problem for you, but the Yeerks would not be able to replicate the technology."

≺But you would lose those particles,≻ Ax said. ≺They sound incredibly complex. Would they not be difficult to replace?≻

"Oh, no, we can easily grow more."

Ax stared at Erek with all four of his eyes. His tail twitched.

"Okay, good enough," Jake said. "So who's going to do it?"

"You said you wanted to kill me, here's your chance," I said.

Jake covered his face and groaned.

"Rachel, stop being so mean!" Cassie suddenly snapped. "We're all trying to help you, don't you see that?"

"By sending Jordan into battle?"

"Only because there is no other way. It's like Jake said. We don't have a choice. _You_ don't have a choice. I don't like the idea of going to a Yeerk meetup to watch my best friend die either, real or not, and pretend to not be bothered, but it's just the way it is."

Everyone was silent after Cassie finished, looking at me, wondering how I'd respond. She always has this weird calming effect on people. And she knows me. Maybe better than I know myself. Because somehow, she broke right through my defenses.

"I'm scared, okay?!" I suddenly yelled, tears forming in my eyes.

I looked around the room and watched them stare at me, wide-eyed. Maybe Jordan was expecting it, and maybe Cassie and Tobias were hoping for it, but the rest was definitely caught by surprise.

"Every time I close my eyes I see Jordan lying face down on the street or sitting next to me in the car. Mom and Sarah are Controllers, Dad's going to be devastated, I don't have a house anymore, not even a bed, I can't go to school, my personal life is over, I don't even have proper clothes, what do you want from me?! To act all tough like I usually do? Say 'let's do it!' and act borderline happy about risking our lives? About risking my sister's l–"

Then my voice broke. I covered my face again and sobbed. Cassie put an arm around me.

I was already berating myself for losing my cool like this in front of them. We all kind of have this natural function in the group. Jake's the leader, even though he doesn't want to be. Marco's the clown, always trying to lighten up the mood when things get too bad. Cassie's the moral compass. I'm the one who's supposed to be self-determined and courageous, and aggressive when we need to be. What I was doing was the exact opposite of what I felt like I had to do as an Animorph. But I couldn't help it. It was too much.

≺Rachel, we're all here for you,≻ Tobias said, and perched on my shoulder.

Jordan hopped on my lap. I could tell the difference between her and Tobias because Jordan wasn't as careful with her talons yet, and she kind of scraped and stung my bare legs.

≺I love you too, Sis,≻ she said to me privately.

Hawk or not, I grabbed Jordan and hugged her.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

* * *

The next couple of hours kind of went by in a blur.

Cassie had taken Jordan and me into the habitat access tunnels of The Gardens, me in human form and Cassie carrying Jordan in hawk form. We'd passed some employees, but most recognize Cassie, and seeing her carry an animal made her seem right where she belonged.

We chose a gorilla for her, because they're mostly docile unless provoked and thus relatively safe to acquire, but still very dangerous and hard to take down. You can only acquire animals when you're in your natural form, so Jordan had to demorph. But the employee access hatches and doors are hidden from the public, so Jordan was too.

For once, things seemed to work out for us.

Then we flew back to the shack. Marco and Ax were already waiting for us there. They had brought some more stuff for us; two blankets, and some more food and water. Jake was at home doing homework, trying to look normal to Tom. Tobias was out hunting for food.

Jordan tried out her new morph. Marco helped her get used to it and shared some of his experiences, considering he primarily uses a gorilla in battle as well. Cassie, Ax, and him then told her about Visser Three, how the Yeerks believe we're Andalites, and why she should refrain from thought-speaking to anyone but us.

Then Erek showed up at the shack, and told me to come back with him.

"Be safe, okay?" I'd said to Jordan.

"I will," she'd responded, and we hugged.

I knew it wouldn't even be that dangerous of a mission. The park is a public place, for one thing. It's unlikely that the Yeerks would even use Hork-Bajir against us unless Visser Three would be there in person and we'd try to make a move against him. But still. It was different knowing Jordan would be there, and it was different to not be part of the action myself.

I flew back to Erek's house. Erek was already there when I arrived. He told me he just made himself invisible and ran. Chee are extremely strong and fast.

"So how will this work?" I asked after I demorphed.

"Follow me," he said. "I'll show you."

He took me down to the basement. I'd been there before. It wasn't actually a basement; heck, the whole house probably wasn't actually a house. That was all just a hologram. No, the basement was more of an elevator, leading down to a huge underground complex. At least one area was completely filled with dogs.

We took the "elevator" down, and ended up in one of the hallways below. They were lit by a somehow gentle, warm, golden light that didn't seem to come from anywhere. It seemed unreal, but wasn't uncomfortable.

Erek took me to a room that was much like the hallway, but more smallish. There was a large, white table in the middle of it, which seemed to be hovering. The room was completely empty and featureless aside from it.

"Lie down on the scanner, please."

"On here?" I pointed to the table.

"Yes."

I obeyed. And man, it was weird. I'd expected the table to feel cold and hard, but it was almost like I was hovering just above it.

"Relax and lie still for a moment," Erek said. And a second later, "Okay, done. You can get back up, now."

When I did, I stood face to face with… myself.

It wasn't the first time, actually. Cassie morphed me once. But this was different. My copy was staring dead ahead, right through me. It wasn't blinking or breathing either, and carried a completely flat face expression. It was dressed in featureless white clothes.

"What do you think?" Erek asked.

"It looks… dead."

"In a way, it is. That's why we need you here. Follow me."

I followed him out of the room, back into the hallway. The copy followed, too. When I looked back, the opening to the room had been replaced with a wall.

I stared at my copy. She – it was walking, but in a very robotic way. Its arms didn't move at all.

"I don't understand. How can you make your hologram look completely human, but not this… this copy of me?"

"Look," he gestured me to look at my copy again.

It was walking more normal now, looking at me, smiling warmly. It was a weird smile, though. Definitely human, but not like me at all. It also walked strangely. It reminded me of… well, Erek, actually. It was even uncannier than Ax's human morph, which is a weird mix of Cassie's, Jake's, Marco's, and my DNA.

"It takes time for us to learn how to mimic subtle human things like body language and voice inflection. I have it down for Erek, but it would take me weeks to copy your behavior properly. Not to mention that I might otherwise make your copy say something that you would never say because I don't have your memories."

He led me and my copy into another room. It contained only a high-tech looking recliner chair.

"Have a seat," he said and gestured.

I did. It reclined backwards automatically as I sat down. It was extremely comfortable, somehow.

Erek put a semispherical thing on my head. It was completely featureless, made of some shiny metal, like a salad bowl. Despite looking like it'd be massively uncomfortable and cold, it was actually warm and soft, and seemed to follow the curvature of my head completely.

I don't know where it came from, by the way. The room was completely empty aside from the recliner, and I'm sure Erek didn't have it with him when we entered. It was like my copy. It just… appeared.

"What is this thing?" I asked.

"There is no English word that adequately describes it, as your species has not yet invented anything of the sort. But it interfaces with your brain. It'll allow you to control your copy. Just relax and close your eyes, then I'll turn it on."

I did. When I opened them again, I was looking down at my copy, now lying in the recliner chair. Wait, had we swapped places somehow? It looked unconscious again, but it was breathing. Then I noticed that I was now wearing the same featureless white clothes that the copy had been wearing.

Wait, no. Duh! I was controlling the copy now, looking down at my real body.

"Whoa!"

It felt like nothing had changed. Like I was myself. I felt my own arms – no, the copy's arms, and they felt just like my own. Completely familiar. I couldn't help but be amazed, even after all that'd happened in the past twenty-four hours.

"The Pemalites used this technology similarly to how humans use phones now. But instead of only being able to talk to someone, they were able to actually feel like they were there."

"This is amazing."

But as I was feeling my own body, I realized something.

"Wait. When the others kill me… would I feel pain?"

Erek looked away for a moment, but looked back at me before he answered.

"Yes. The link lets through all senses equally. The Pemalites never developed any sort of filtering, because they never needed it."

"But… Can this thing kill me, then?"

"No. It's not like that. The system will continue to pass through all senses from the distributed control systems inside your copy to your brain until the link is broken in some way, but it cannot _physically_ hurt you. Even if it could, all Pemalite technology has safety mechanisms that cause self-destruction in case it does detect damage to any living creature. I will, however, need to keep the link active until your copy would logically die or fall unconscious. Otherwise it would be obvious to the Yeerks that you're not real."

"But the others might kill me in a really painful way! They don't know about this!"

"I didn't want to distress you and your friends. My programming requires me to prevent living beings from getting _physically_ hurt. If your mission fails, it's likely that you and your friends would be. Therefore, I have to do all that I can to prevent that. Your friends will already find it difficult to hurt your copy, even knowing that it's not really you. I didn't want to make it even harder for them."

I stared at Erek like he'd betrayed me, then looked at the floor.

For all intents and purposes, my friends were actually going to kill me. Except I'd still be alive afterwards. Suddenly I was glad that I was the one here and Jordan was out there in a gorilla morph. Jordan _might_ get hurt, but I was going to get hurt for sure.

"There's one more thing that we need to do to finish your copy. Do you remember what clothes you were wearing yesterday?"

I thought back. Yes, I did. A light pink, short-sleeved T-shirt and dark jeans. Then I saw the white clothes that I had been wearing change into them instantly from the corner of my eyes. They were an exact copy, for as far as I could remember. But they were still intact and clean. I was about to tell Erek how messed up they'd gotten, but I didn't have to. Again, they changed right before my eyes.

"You can read my mind?"

"The brain interface can. It has to; otherwise you wouldn't be able to control your copy as you would normally control your own body. But it can only sense conscious thoughts. There's one other thing that you need to really understand. You _cannot_ cause physical harm with this body. When your mother grabs you to take you to the park, you may try to struggle, but the link will prevent you from hurting her. Your mother would experience it as if you are completely exhausted and have lost all strength in your muscles. You should keep that in mind as you play your role. Do you understand?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Good."

And suddenly I was home.

It happened in the blink of an eye, like I had been teleported. Erek was nowhere to be found. I panicked, assumed combat position and looked around me. Mom was right there! She was looking right at me! Wait, was she? No, she was looking through me.

≺Rachel, calm down,≻ I heard Erek inside my head. ≺We're invisible.≻

≺But… but… how…≻

≺I disabled your copy as I ran here. It would have distressed you to move that fast. You were essentially asleep while it was turned off. Now the link is back on, but your copy is still disabled.≻

I looked down at myself, but there was nothing there. I tried to feel around, but realized I didn't have any arms. It was really weird. Disconcerting, but not more than that.

Then I looked back at Mom. She and Sarah were just sitting in the living room, seemingly staring at nothing. But then Sarah spoke.

"It is almost time for the gathering."

"Yes," Mom replied.

"Visser Three will not be pleased with our performance."

"No, he will not. But he will be displeased even more if we do not show up. We would certainly be captured when we have to return to the pool for Kandrona rays. But I believe he will keep us alive. He needs these hosts to predict the behavior of Rachel and Jordan, and there are so few of us without hosts since yesterday's incident that he needs _us_ as well."

"But that can change, and the Visser is not known for his rationality or forgiveness. We need to perform admirably to make up for losing the humans."

It hurt so bad to see them like this. I wanted to scream at them that they'd be okay. That we'd get them out. Help was coming. But even if I would have, I couldn't in this form.

≺Erek, I don't want to see this. Can you just wake me up again when it's time?≻

≺Alright.≻


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

* * *

The next moment I was in some alley downtown, and I had a body again, wearing my disgusting and torn clothes from yesterday. I was also hurt again. It wasn't great.

≺Your mother and sister will pass by this alley in approximately five minutes. The park is two blocks away, and the gathering for the new members of The Sharing has already started. Visser Three is there, in human morph. There is a secret Yeerk pool entrance in the public toilet behind each stall. The Yeerks often use this entrance to pull in new random hosts when they have an excess of Yeerks in the pool.≻

That was horrifying to consider. The worst thing I ever imagined happening at a public toilet was having to sit on a disgusting toilet seat or realizing too late that the toilet paper had run out. I'd have to add being infested by a Yeerk to the top of that list.

≺Your friends are already in position and in battle morph in another alley. Remember your role.≻

And then I was no longer in the alley. Not really. I was having a flashback.

I watched as Jordan, now unconscious from the blood loss, was pulled out of the car and taken by a bear. I screamed until I couldn't scream anymore, then I cried until I couldn't cry anymore. Then I walked back to the civilized world. It was so late at night that no one saw me.

I didn't care about what the Andalites had told me and Jordan anymore. They'd pulled us aside into an alley just after we escaped from the mall. They were human when they grabbed us, but they had to put duct tape over our mouths to stop us from screaming when they slowly changed to their very alien forms.

Then they explained about the Yeerks, and about how they were trying to save "the human race" from them. What was left to save, if the Yeerks had already gotten this far?

Jake and Cassie, perhaps? I hoped they had a nice time together. I'd helped Cassie buy Jake a present. Then we split up, and I saw Jordan with Lucy and her parents. Jordan wanted some new clothes, so I helped her buy some. That's when that… that _thing_ appeared, and my life got turned upside down.

But I didn't even know if Jake and Cassie were still real. How many people had already been Yeerked? Who knows. Maybe we'd pretty much already lost. I knew I had.

All those aliens could go to hell. They killed my sister, destroyed my family, and destroyed me. I had nothing left to live for. I just wanted revenge.

So I hid here in this alley. It was right next to the park, where the aliens would have their little meetup. If those things that used to be my mom and sister would walk to the park from home – and they'd have to walk, because I'd trashed the car – they were sure to pass by here. And I would give them a piece of my mind. Oh, yes. I'd explain to them just what they'd done to me.

 _Rachel, go now,_ a voice inside my head said. I didn't recognize it. Was I going insane?

But yes, yes! There they were!

I ran, but my legs weren't really cooperating. I hadn't slept, eaten, or drunk anything for almost a whole day, and I'd spent the whole night walking. I'm pretty athletic, but I didn't have that kind of endurance. Especially not after that car crash.

I probably wouldn't be able to do much to them. But I didn't care. I would've jumped off a building if there would've been even the slightest chance of me taking those aliens down with me.

I emerged from the alley to charge at the thing that used to be my mom. I bumped into some woman along the way, who shrieked at the sight of me. I guess I wasn't exactly the most attractive I'd ever been, wearing these bloody and torn clothes, and looking bruised and scraped and dehydrated. I ran past her.

"YOU KILLED MY SISTER!" I screamed at it at the top of my lungs, which actually wasn't that loud anymore, really. My voice was hoarse and broken from all the screaming and crying and lack of water. But people heard. Everyone was looking at me when I finally ran straight into that alien thing.

It lost its balance and fell over. I swung my arms at it madly, trying to do as much damage as I could, but it wasn't doing much.

No!

Make it pay for what it did!

"JORDAN'S DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU –" I screamed, and called it every bad name that I knew.

But it just pushed me off, and the thing that used to be Sarah was strong enough to hold me down.

The crowd around us was just staring at me, keeping their distance, not knowing what to do.

Idiots!

"They're aliens! They did this!" I cried as the older one turned me face down on the street and held my hands together behind my back.

I looked at the younger one. It was crying. Fake tears! It was all a lie!

"Don't listen to her, sweetheart. You know how Rachel can get sometimes," the older one told it. Then, louder, it said, "It's okay, everyone. She's schizophrenic. She escaped from home yesterday. We've been looking for her ever since. It looks like she's hurt herself pretty badly, so we'll take her to the hospital."

The older one had pulled me up to my feet, still holding my arms behind my back. I was struggling, but I wasn't strong enough. I tried to scream again, but it covered my mouth with one of its filthy hands, apparently capable of holding my hands together using only one. Was I really _that_ weak?!

"Would you like me to call you an ambulance? Or a cab? I have a mobile phone," some guy in fancy looking clothing offered.

"No, no, cars really upset her. We'll walk. But thank you."

I licked the hand that was over my mouth, and it instinctively let go.

"SHE DROVE INTO ME AND JORDAN!"

"Rachel, it's okay. Everything's going to –"

"IT'S NEVER GOING TO BE OKAY! HELP ME!"

They had started to move me in the direction of the park. The hospital was the other way.

Right, of course. I wasn't crazy! They're aliens!

I screamed all the way there. But no one stopped them. Everyone just stared! Humans aren't worth saving. Let them all rot like me!

Once in the park, the aliens took me to this man. He'd been sitting on a bench near the public toilet, but he got up the moment he saw me.

"Ah, look who we have here," he said.

"They killed my sister!" My throat was so sore, I could only whimper now. "Please help me…"

"Did they, now?"

"Yes, Visser. I drove my host's car into her and her sister as they escaped."

 _Animorphs, wait for my signal._ That voice again. Where did it come from? No matter. Probably some other alien. I had no idea what that word meant, anyway.

"But you had reported that they both escaped alive?" the man asked the young one.

"Jordan was almost dead!" I sobbed. "I think I watched her die in the car… Then a bear came and pulled her… her _body_ along with it!"

"Good," the man said.

Good?! Did he not hear what I just said? Was he an alien too?!

"Now tell me, sweet Rachel, why you destroyed our access tunnels to the mall?"

"What are you talking about?!" I asked, as confused as I was desperate.

"Then did you perhaps happen to meet some aliens yesterday?"

"Yes! Yes!"

Finally someone got it!

"First there was this alien in the mall; they covered it up, but I _swear_ it was real. Then this man gave me this weird pistol thing, and these guards who were blocking the doors just let Jordan and me through when we showed it to them! Then two aliens pulled us into an alley. They said they were fighting these other aliens; Yeerks, they called them. Told us to stay away from –"

"I've heard enough," the man interrupted me, addressing the older one and the younger one again. "You two have done well. Now take her."

 _Now!_ Again, that weird voice. "Now take her now?" I didn't understand what it meant.

And then I heard screaming again, off in the distance. Some people had shrieked as the aliens dragged me into the park, but this was a different kind of screaming. I also heard car horns, even a car crash, I think. And footsteps. Loud, deep footsteps. They shook the ground. I looked around me, confused, as I was being dragged to the public toilet by the two aliens.

There! What? Rhinos, elephants, and a gorilla?

"Andalites!" I heard the man yell.

Those animals were aliens?

 _Don't let them take the girl_ , I heard a voice in my head say. A different voice.

 _Kill her! They cannot be allowed to infest her!_

I was so confused. I guess I _was_ going insane.

 _Rachel, are you okay? You're an amazing actor if this isn't real._

The voices knew my name? I looked around me, dazed. My gaze met a large, fierce looking bird. It was staring right at me.

"Help me!" I tried. But it didn't move.

 _Erek, this_ is _a hologram, right?_

 _Yes, I assure you. Just do what you came here to do!_

Two seconds later, a rhino charged at me and the aliens who were holding me. They bolted. I tried to run away too, but I stumbled and fell.

 _A little to the left! No, too far, right now, steady… Steady now…_

"AAAAAAAGGGGHHH," I yelled, as I felt a searing pain shoot through my body. Beyond description. Many times worse than the crash yesterday.

I saw a shadow pass closely over me, but my eyes wouldn't focus right anymore. I tried to move, but my legs no longer worked. I felt my arms twitch, but not much more than that. I started coughing, and felt a warm liquid come up. It tasted metallic. My mind was drifting. I couldn't focus on anything anymore. There were only those voices in my head. They were all yelling through one another, it made no sense to me. Not anymore.

 _Aaaah! I think I got her! Is she dead yet?!_

"N-no! RACHEL!"

"Come to shield your secrets from me, Andalite filth? Hypocrites! You don't care any more about these humans than we do!"

 _Oh, that is just not… N-no… I can't…_

 _No, I don't believe it! She's still trying to crawl away! Turn around, double back!_

 _I want to throw up…_

 _Aaaaaah! Rachel!_

 _Left! Left more! Almost there!_

 _She can't feel any of this, can she? Tell me she can't!_

The shadow again! And more pain! Like –


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

* * *

And then I was no longer hurt. I heard Mom scream her lungs out. She was twitching madly. Wait, did I die…? Yes! Oh god… I could see… what… what was left of myself… from above…

≺Well, she's definitely dead now!≻ Tobias?

≺Let's just please get out of here now…≻ Cassie?

≺Please be okay, please be okay…≻ Jordan?

Jordan was still alive? Wait, yes, I… I remembered…

≺Guys, meet Rachel and me back at the shack in the forest. Rachel, it's okay. It's over.≻ Erek?

≺Wh… What…≻

≺I'm sorry. I had to make sure you'd play your part.≻

It felt like waking up from a really, really terrible and realistic nightmare. It took me a minute to get my thoughts together again.

I was levitating up in the air, like a bird, but not moving. I didn't have a body again, like when Erek had taken me home.

I looked at what was left of what had felt like my body just a minute ago. I'd been trampled, twice. I'll spare you the details, but there wasn't much left. They'd have to dig my remains out of the grass, so there definitely wouldn't be any doubt among the Yeerks about whether I was still alive or not. And with how Erek had made me play my part, they had no reason to believe that Jordan was still alive, either.

The Yeerk inside Mom had lost control over her for a couple seconds. It happens sometimes. Seeing her true response to what she thought had happened was absolutely excruciating. But there was nothing any of us could do about it without giving ourselves away.

Everyone who was still in the park was panicking and running away now. Even the Controllers, I realized. I guess the Yeerks didn't want to get trampled, either. Or maybe they were just keeping up appearances. Only Mom wasn't moving, and Visser Three wasn't running. He was throwing a hissy fit as he walked to the public toilets. He knew we got what we came for, and that he had lost this battle already.

It could have gone much worse for him, though. In all the horror of having to kill me, none of my friends had realized they could've easily trampled Visser Three right there and then, too. Not even Ax. I guess he's come to care about us humans quite a bit.

Or maybe Visser Three had defenses that we didn't know about? Was it overconfidence, or had the Yeerks also figured out a way to make remote-controlled humanoids? Or personal shields?

Who knows. After what I'd just been through, I didn't really care.

≺Can I get out of here, now?≻ I asked Erek, and was instantly in the recliner room again.

I immediately jumped out of the recliner and took off that weird salad bowl. Then I couldn't help but feel all over my body. Make sure that it was all there and intact. I wouldn't be able to get that image of myself out of my head for a long, long time.

Erek was already there when I woke up. He told me that my friends would be waiting at the shack. I didn't say much in response. I just kind of rudely morphed eagle and left.

The whole thing kept replaying in my head over and over as I flew back. Had we missed anything? Would the Yeerks suspect?

No. Erek had made sure that I played my part just right. It was a horrible experience, don't get me wrong, but I was glad that he helped me that way, and that he didn't tell my friends that I would _feel_ getting trampled. I really don't know if we could've pulled it off otherwise.

Now we just had to figure out how Jordan and I were going to survive the winter out in that stupid shack.

Wait, where _is_ that stupid shack?

Did I get lost somehow? No, my bird eyes recognized the surroundings from before. It should be right there! Now there were just more trees!

I dived down to one of the trees that stood where the shack used to be. How could this be? Was I dreaming? Was this whole thing just one big nightmare or something? No, it'd felt way too real for that. But I guess getting trampled felt pretty real, too. And here I was, still alive.

But just before I reached the tree I was aiming for, it disappeared. The slanted roof of a decent-looking cottage appeared, instead.

I perched down on the ground in front of the house and looked inside. My friends, Jordan, and Erek were sitting in its living room.

≺Guys?≻ I said in disbelief.

"Rachel!" Jordan yelled, and ran outside at me. She was wearing proper clothes, now.

She picked me up and hugged me. The eagle in me wanted to haul very badly, but I kept it under control.

≺Hey Sis.≻

Erek explained as I demorphed. Like he'd told me, he was programmed to protect. He couldn't let us live out here and freeze to death, so he used their technology to make us a hologram of a proper house. Hidden, too. The Yeerks wouldn't find it unless they'd walk right into it.

"You're just giving this place to us?"

≺Apparently, they can just grow as many of those hologram particles as they please,≻ Ax said somewhat bitterly. ≺It does not cost them anything.≻

"Thank you, Erek."

"You're welcome. Well, I'd best be off. Try to enjoy your new home. You deserve it." Then he just disappeared.

≺You're a pretty amazing actor, you know that?≻ Tobias said a couple seconds later.

"Yeah, you looked _really_ hurt…" Cassie added. "As in, like you actually felt it."

"I believed it…" Jordan whimpered. "It was so real, I thought Erek lied and you were dead."

Did Erek not tell them how he made me do it? Well, maybe that was for the best. I might tell Cassie and Tobias later, but at least the person who killed me wouldn't have to know.

"Who killed me, in the end?" I asked.

"Jake did," Cassie said.

He was looking at the floor, but then looked up at me, with a very painful expression.

"Did you feel it?"

"No," I lied. "Erek helped me to pretend like I did."

I guess that was true, technically. I walked over to him and hugged him, too. He was also family, after all.

It isn't like me to be this touchy-feely. But I couldn't help it. This had been the single most intense experience of my life, so far anyway. My death felt so real…

We talked for a while, and then one by one my friends left. First Jake, Cassie, and Marco. They had to go home, or their parents would get suspicious. Then Ax left to do his rituals and absorb grass.

Tobias stayed the longest. It was already long dark by the time he left. I'd offered for him to stay here, but he wanted to go back to his meadow. His home.

Jordan and I each had our own bedroom, but we'd taken Jordan's mattress and put it in my room. We both wanted to be together, at least for now, after all that we'd been through.

As I looked around the bedroom to get a feel for it, I noticed that Erek had left me a framed picture of my family. Jordan had a copy in her room, too. It had been taken before my parents had divorced, so both Mom and Dad were on it. Erek must have found it in some old photo album while we were at my house, or something. Jordan and I stared at it for a while.

"What about Dad?" Jordan finally asked.

I sighed. "I guess there will be a funeral for us in a while. He'd come over to attend, of course."

"I don't want him to think we're dead…"

She hugged me.

"Me neither…"


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

* * *

The Yeerks covered up our deaths with this weak story about a drug sting and more hallucination gas. People bought it, apparently. But there weren't any more gatherings of The Sharing for people affected by it. The Yeerks had given up on that. From what we heard from Erek later, they had indeed run out of adult Yeerks, anyway. That wasn't exactly something to be happy about, considering that all those Yeerks had taken new hosts, but at least it gave us all some downtime.

Our funeral was held a week later. Tobias, Ax, Jordan, and I had attended the ceremony in seagull morphs. The rest was in human form. It had been a pretty nice funeral, I guess, despite the fact that everyone was told that I'd gone nuts on some drug when I ran away with Jordan, killed her as I crashed the car in the forest, and was finally killed by some drug lord later.

There had been a casket for each of us, even though they only had half a body to put in mine and nothing to put in Jordan's. People put little presents and personal things on top of and inside of them. Then they buried the caskets as people said their final goodbyes.

In the days that followed, Jordan and I spent quite some time hanging out around Dad as birds. We wanted so badly to say something, to give him a sign that we were still alive, even though we knew that we shouldn't.

We'd seen his plane tickets. He'd fly home again that afternoon. But we knew he'd stop by the cemetery again, first, because we'd seen him buy more flowers. It might just be our last chance to say something to him for a very long time.

Put yourself in our shoes. Could you just sit there and let him be that devastated? Or worse, let the Yeerks get to him, too?

We perched down on our tombstones in seagull morph. It being a normal Tuesday afternoon during office hours, the cemetery was basically empty. No one would come close enough to really see us, except for Dad.

We watched him as he got out of his cab. And even at this distance, we could see that he was already crying.

"Shoo," he said to us when he got here. He waved an arm at us to get us to go away, while holding on to the flowers with the other.

But we didn't. We just stared at him intently.

"Fine," he sighed. Then he squatted down and put the flowers by the rest of them.

He stared at our graves. I guess he was talking to us in his head. Telling us why he couldn't come see us for a while, or something. I wished I could've heard him. Unfortunately, thought-speak doesn't work that way.

It took him a couple minutes to realize that us sitting here still staring at him was a bit weird. He frowned. Then I hopped down behind my tombstone, picked up the note we'd written, and hopped right in front of him to present it. Jordan hopped next to me.

He looked shocked. Like he'd seen a ghost. Or, more accurately, _was_ looking at two ghosts.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he carefully took the note from me. Then we hopped back on top of our tombstones.

We watched him read the note, but took off before he could say anything.

Here's what we wrote.

* * *

 _Dear Dad,_

 _We're really sorry for what you must be going through right now. But you have to believe us when we say that we didn't have a choice._

 _Forget about that stupid drug sting cover-up. It's so lame, I don't understand how anyone could believe that. There's much more to this than meets the eye._

 _Humans are not alone in the universe. We've met many aliens, already. Some, we wish we never had. But others are good and try to help us. As you can probably tell, some of those good aliens have the technology to change into animals._

 _Mom and Sarah are not themselves anymore. Neither is Cousin Tom. They were taken prisoner by the worst aliens of them all. Don't trust them. You'll believe they're real, because they're really good at imitating humans, but they're not. That's why we had to run away._

 _We fight these aliens. To save the human race, and maybe some others along the way. We might just save our friends and family yet._

 _Stay away from the organization known as "The Sharing." It's a cover-up for getting new people to take over. And don't trust anyone who seems somehow different all of a sudden, or tries to take you somewhere you wouldn't normally go. For as far as we know and for whatever reason, the aliens seem mostly interested in this region for now, so you should be relatively safe at home. But you're also a news anchor, so they might become interested in you specifically to spread their propaganda._

 _Whatever you do,_ _don't tell anyone_ _. No one can know about this. If you tell the wrong person, or the people you tell get captured later, you might as well paint a big red target on your forehead. We've lost so many friends and family members to them already… We don't want to lose you, too._

 _We would have told you this in person if we could. But we can't, not anymore. So this will have to do._

 _We love you,_

 _Jordan and Rachel_

* * *

Thank you for reading! The series continues with _The Anomaly_.


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